Natural Progression
by iLuvNaruto1412
Summary: After the war, life goes on. Some things change, some do not. But everything progressed through its natural course. Story will revolve mainly around Sakura and Kakashi's relationship, and Kakashi's ascension and early days as Hokage. Other characters will be explored as well.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The war had finally ended. It only took three days to conclude the fourth great shinobi war, but for a relatively short war, everyone had been drained dry. Most did not have the opportunity to sleep even for just a second, nor the opportunity to fill up their stomachs with anything other than hyorogan, as the undead enemy army bombardment was ceaseless. The stress and anxiety of the agonizing months leading up to the horrible calamity also took a lot of toll on the shinobi. By the time the war was over, everyone was extremely exhausted, and despite the mourning which was to come from the losses they suffered, everyone allowed themselves to forget, just for a day, where they would celebrate life.

The village was buzzing with shinobi and civilians alike celebrating the victory against Madara Uchiha. Every ninja was flocking at the free alcohol distributed around for the celebration, and Sakura was possibly the only one in the whole village who was not chugging alcohol into her system. Instead, she sat quietly at the periphery of the celebration, watching people around her making merry and forgetting about all their troubling thoughts.

Sakura did understand why people turn to alcohol, letting go occasionally was healthy after all. During her three years apprenticeship with Tsunade, she had gotten drunk a few times with her shishou when things were especially difficult in the hospital. It was nice to be able to forget how utterly useless and helpless she had felt when she was not able to save a patient. It was nice to not have her inferiority complex resurface, to not have to think about how she could have saved her patient if she had more skills and chakra. It was nice to not have to cry herself to sleep.

However, today, she could not seem to let go of her thoughts. There were just too many things on her mind that she needed to address. The war posed too many questions to be answered.

As a teenager, Sakura was always very sure of herself. She was not always confident about her skills as a kunoichi, but she had always thought that the scope of her knowledge was leaps and bounds above her peers, and that she was just as wise as the adults around her. She had always thought that every mission she had agreed to take was the right mission to do, as they were missions which embodied justice.

But through the war she wondered, what was really the right ideal and the right thing to do? Obito and Madara started the war because they thought that a world of illusion was ideal, as there were no pain and suffering in that world. Just like war, every mission she took were missions that benefitted one side but harmed the opposing side. So which side was right? Every side fought to protect what they believed in, so which side's ideals benefitted more people at the end? What right did she have to think that her side was more righteous than others? All shinobi obeyed the orders from their leaders. What justified her to attack them for their loyalty? What if it was her order that was wrong? What made it right for her to defend her ideals but destroy her opponents'?

Sakura was startled out of her reverie when she felt something cold pressed onto her cheek. "You know, a drink or two won't kill you," Kakashi told her as his eyes creased into a smile. She smiled weakly back at him as he took a seat next to her.

"I'm just not in the mood to drink, sensei," Sakura sighed as she rested her chin on the bar counter. "Besides, why are you not drinking? Your liver is damaged enough from all those sharp objects piercing through it, some drinks won't kill you," Sakura asked as she gave him a playful grin. Kakashi chuckled and reached out to ruffle her hair.

"People are drinking because they are celebrating. I don't see anything worth celebrating over," Kakashi responded as he averted his eyes towards the crowd to avoid her gaze. He knew that she understood what he meant, but he just didn't like the fact that his former student was getting better at reading him. After all, he had a reputation to uphold, the copy ninja - ever aloof and unreadeable. That, and the fact that he didn't really want to talk about Obito, yet. It was hard enough seeing him being buried alive between those rocks years ago, but knowing that he was the cause Konoha suffered so many casualties over the years were more than heart wrenching. A part of him still blamed himself for causing Obito to change from one of the kindest people who had ever lived to become someone more vengeful than the revenge-driven Sasuke.

Sakura's grin slipped at his reply. She knew how Kakashi-sensei felt about Obito. He was his old teammate; and she had heard about their story from a drunken Shizune. Shizune had told her that Kakashi-sensei was once a stuck-up pain in the ass who was worse than both Neji and Sasuke combined, and that all he cared about was completing the mission, even if he had to sacrifice a teammate to achieve it. It was Obito who had influenced Kakashi-sensei to adopt the principle of teamwork so closely to his heart.

Being the curious girl that she was, she had snuck into the file storage room to dig for more information about 'Obito'. Her thirteen year old self had been so blinded by curiosity that she had not thought about how Kakashi might feel upon knowing that she had pried into his personal life without his knowledge or consent. She had also so naively thought that this great 'Obito' person must still be around, since such a great shinobi like him must be just like her sensei - unbeatable even by death. Well, technically she was right, but at the time she figured out who Obito was and what had happened to him, her heart had ached with guilt, and overwhelming sadness. Upon discovering about Obito, she too learnt about Rin and the Yondaime Hokage. That day, Sakura left the storage room with tears running down her face; she had never expected her sensei's life to be that tragic.

When Sasuke defected, she noticed that Kakashi-sensei had acted somewhat indifferent; a completely opposite reaction to hers and Naruto's. She had thought that he simply did not care about Sasuke as much as she and Naruto had. Upon reading the file of Kakashi-sensei's genin team, she regretfully realized how wrong she had been. Kakashi-sensei had only appeared to be indifferent because he knew that grieving or wallowing in self-pity like she had was not going to bring Sasuke back; neither will swearing to drag Sasuke back by crook or by hook. If the return was forced, Sasuke would just defect again without a care of his teammates like he had the first time.

Looking back, she realized that perhaps, Kakashi-sensei was the one who had actually suffered the most due to Sasuke's action. Leaving the village had not only caused Kakashi-sensei to lose another precious person, but also rob him off his team for a second time, as Sasuke's defection was the cause of team seven dissolving.

"You're ruinning the mood, sensei," Sakura grumbled to break the uneasy tension that was beginning to cloud over them. "Today is supposed to be a joyous day," she muttered as she fixed him an exasperated look.

"Sorry," Kakashi mumbled sheepishly as he rubbed at the back of his neck.

"Let's spar," Sakura suddenly announced as she got up from her seat. Kakashi's puzzled look made her chuckle. "We are obviously miserable among this happy bunch. Why not take things off your mind the shinobi way?"

"Sure, but I would not hold back."

"I will kill you if you do."

…

Panting hard, Sakura collapsed into the ground with her back against cracks on the decimated training ground. Looking at Kakashi, she grumbled as she saw that he was doing so much better than she had. Sure, his breathing was ragged, and he was catching his breath on one of the craters she had created, but he had not looked as spent as she did. "This is so unfair. I've trained so hard for all these years and I couldn't even land a hit on you, and you don't even look that tired!" Sakura exclaimed in exasperation

"I guess having the sharingan all these years has its use. Although I can't predict movements as well as when I had it, I could still make intelligent guesses based on experience on where the next blow would come. But as I had expected, my foresight would not be enough to attempt using chidori in a real combat."

"You were trying to pull a chidori on me? I thought we agreed that this was going to be a taijutsu spar!" Sakura gaped at Kakashi in disbelief. How dare he broke the rule they had agreed on? And chidori is a dangerous jutsu! Sure, he would not use it with the intent to kill but still, raiton is an extra pain since the left-over electric current would linger and sting even after the wound was healed.

Kakashi chuckled at her reaction as he walked towards her. She graciously accepted the hand he offered and relied on him to pull her up off the ground. "I was not even planning to use the chidori at all. But as I fought you, I realised that there was a significant drop in how I could foresee my enemy's movements, and so chidori would be out of the question from now on, unless I'm killing an immobile target or if I have my path cleared from any potential ambushes," Kakashi explained. As he did some post-spar stretching, he winced as he pulled on a particular sore spot.

"Did I manage to land a hit?" Sakura asked enthusiastically as she promptly healed the part Kakashi was rubbing on.

"Wasn't a hit, but I over stretched myself trying to avoid your kick. I had a miscalculation in the beginning of the spar. It was so much harder reading your attacks without the sharingan."

"That, and maybe I'm just getting much better," Sakura said teasingly.

"Yes. You have come leaps and bounds even since that second bell test," Kakashi commented nonchalantly as he ruffled her hair, making Sakura blush. He may have said it just like he was stating a fact, completely devoid of any hints of praise, but the fact that he said it meant that it must have been true. After all, Kakashi was the sort of man who never complimented or degraded another, he was the sort who only gave credit when it was due.

"It's getting late. You should have some rest, I'm sure that you would be needed in the hospital tomorrow," Kakashi said as he began to walk out of the training ground. Not wanting to be left behind, Sakura picked up her speed to walk alongside her ex-sensei.

"You know, sensei, since you just lost your sharingan, even though your performance is still no doubt a few nothes above most jonin, as your self-declared medic, I would not recommend you taking the more dangerous missions.. You will need time to re-adjust," Sakura lectured as they walked towards the main street of the village. While Kakashi managed to avoid all her attacks and was not panting as hard as she did after the spar, she had seen a drop in his reaction time. It wasn't much, and against normal shinobi it would not even matter, but if he was up against a large group, or someone as experience as he was, or as proficient at taijutsu as Gai-sensei, he no doubt would have a lot of difficulties in battle.

"I know, Sakura."

"You always said you know it but you're extremely stubborn! You will still take those dangerous missions. You need someone to remind and nag you about it all the time. You and Naruto are the same" She chided.

Kakashi winced at her words. Surely, he was not as stubborn as Naruto to be grouped together in such regards? Clearing his throat, Kakashi defended himself, "well, if only things are that simple, but even in this peaceful era there are still going to be demands for high ranking missions.."

"Let someone else do it," Sakura cut him tersely. "The burden of the village does not rest solely on your shoulders. We have other capable shinobi too, you know."

"I know. But sometimes, they requested for me specifically for those high-ranking missions."

"But you're not going to be ready for at least a month!"

"They wouldn't care, Sakura. To them, we shinobi are just tools. Plus, because of the war and all the destructions Konoha suffered, we need all the money we can get. We can't afford to be picky right now," Kakashi explained as he smiled at her. "I know you care about me, about everyone. But don't worry too much. I've always came back up until now. I'm not going to break my record just yet," Kakashi grinned behind his mask as he tried to ruffle her hair again. Sakura was quick enough to evade his hand and gave him a pout. After a moment of silence lapsed between them, Sakura got an idea.

"In that case, with Gai-sensei unable to be your training partner until he recovers, Naruto and Sasuke not needing further taijutsu trainings, let me be your taijutsu sparring partner from now on," Sakura pleaded with a determined look in her eyes.

"Well, if you insist. I can't really object a medic's expert opinion.." Kakashi said teasingly as his eyes creased. "And since you are going to be my taijutsu sparring partner, it would only be fair for me to teach you genjutsu," Kakashi continued as he turned away from her, resuming his trek home.

"Wait, sensei! I don't need that!" Sakura blurted out. "It's not that I don't want to learn new things, but I don't need any kind of repayment from you, I just want to help!"

"I know, Sakura. But I'm doing this for me as well."

"Eh?"

"You see, among my three students, you are the only one I never dedicated my time to. When all of you were still genin, I focused most of my attention to Sasuke, especially after the incident with Orochimaru. After Naruto came back from his trip, I focused on him to create his rasen-shuriken. But you, all this time, I have failed you as a teacher. This would be my time to make it right," Kakashi explained quietly, eyes averted from hers in guilt. Kakashi always felt like he had failed Sakura, for leaving her out all these years. But back then, when he as newly appointed as a genin instructor, he was still summoned for A or S ranked missions frequently because he was one of very few people who were capable of taking non-ANBU missions of such calibre, and he was also still occasionally be contacted ANBU to carry out unofficial ANBU missions.

"It wasn't your fault, sensei. For you to still be able to advise on what I should improve on back then was already quite the feat. With you having to babysit both Naruto and Sasuke as well.."

Kakashi's lips quirk up into a small smile, and as he glanced at Sakura's mirthful expression, a small chuckle managed to break out from him.

"That's one way of putting what a troublesome genin team I was assigned to.."

"I know right? They behaved like little kids all the time," Sakura added with a laugh.

"They still behave like kids up until now," Kakashi replied with a wry grin. At Sakura's confused expression, Kakashi explained, "I saw Naruto and Sasuke having a drunken spat at the Uchiha compound just before I came to the bar. Naruto had smuggled a bottle of sake and brought it over to the confinement area. I think he wanted to watch and make fun of a drunk Sasuke which kinda backfire.."

At that Sakura laughed, but as she pictured the drunken brawl in her head, she snapped her attention back to Kakashi. "Wait, are they hurt? Are they ok? Did they destroy anything?" Sakura felt a rising sense of panic. She had barely started making an outline for their prosthetic hands, and those idiots had torn apart another limb?

"They were too drunk to use chakra," Kakashi informed her reassuringly. "They'll probably spot some nasty bruises and swellings tomorrow though."

"Serve them right," Sakura interjected. "And I'm not going to heal them. They can find another medic."

"Naruto would probably be healed by the first medic who he comes across. Sasuke though.."

"Ino or Hinata-chan would probably be nice enough to help him, if he asks nicely."

"Hmm.. Then we can expect Sasuke sporting those bruises for the next couple of weeks," Kakashi hummed.

"Like I said, serve him right. Especially for leaving all of us before."

Kakashi nodded in agreement as he stole a glance on Sakura. She did not look upset at all, only annoyed. He had thought that talking about Sasuke's defection may still be a taboo among his two students, but apparently, with Sasuke finally coming back, or the events leading to the war or the war itself forcing them to mature much quicker than they should, Sasuke's wayward ways was just another topic of conversation now.

As they reached the intersection that leads them to their respective apartment, Kakashi spoke, "so I'll see you after your shift tomorrow?"

"Yep! And don't be late! Or else.."

At that Kakashi chuckled and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving a fuming Sakura who stomped her way home.

…

A/N

1\. This story is designed to be a slow-burn, and I want to make it a story of what Kakashi does before he become Hokage, when he's the Hokage and what he does when he retired. Basically the fic will be focused on Kakashi's reign. It will also tie in with how Sakura expand the hospital services and establish the children's therapy centre (Cue Sakura Hiden)

2\. I will be writing the fic mostly from Kakashi and Sakura's perspective. But there would be other characters too, mainly Sasuke. He will be an interesting character in this fic ;)

3\. Update to this fic will be very erratic because my life revolves around school schedule*cries*

4\. Enjoy! And I appreciate all the reviews I can get 3

5\. Chapter 2 is updated as of April 2019


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A/N: CHAPTER 2 is new content as of April 2019!

…

Kakashi watched with amusement as he saw a group of exasperated and resigned nurses gathering on one side of the hospital courtyard. On the other side, Rock Lee was doing his famous handstand laps and Gai was hot on his heels, wheeling his wheelchair at a speed that caused it to rattle as one by one, the bolts were becoming undone. Soon enough, just as Kakashi had predicted, the wheelchair came apart. Before Gai could fall face first on the dirt, a large dog appeared in front on him, cushioning his fall.

"Bull! It is really nice meeting you again after so long! You have gotten bigger and more youthful than ever!"

"Gai-sensei!" Rock Lee cried as he stood upright from his handstand and ran towards Gai. "Bull, thank you for helping Gai-sensei! That was really youthful of you!"

"Ah.. Bull while does enjoy praises, he would trade all the praises he gets all day for a treat," Kakashi said as he took out a treat from his pocket.

"Can I? Kakashi-sensei?" Rock Lee asked with excitement as he reached out for the treat in Kakashi's hand. At the Jonin's nod, Lee took the treat and held it out on his palm for Bull, who eagerly took the treat into his mouth, covering Lee's hand with slobber. "Yosh! That's a good boy, Bull!"

"You know that Bull is older than you, right?" Kakashi asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Yes. But Bull will always be a good boy!"

"Yes, you're right indeed," Kakashi agreed. "Gai, how are you?"

"I'm beginning to see why you can't wait to leave the hospital, my eternal rival! It is eternally boring in here, and the courtyard is too small for me to observe Lee's training regiments! Just when I found one after observing one of the Samurai fighting.."

"Gai-kun! You're disturbing everyone! I'm going to call on Sakura-san if you don't go back to your room!" the head nurse bellowed, cutting off the rest of Gai's words.

"Keiko-san, I apologise. We will tone it down and Gai will go inside like he is supposed to. Sakura-chan is probably busy with surgeries and emergency cases. I promise to see this being done," Kakashi said with a smile, trying to placate her.

"Fine, kid. I'm holding you out to it. Just because I know that you actually keep your promises. And I'm really glad that you're not in one of our beds for a change," Keiko said as her feature and tone soften, into that of a kind motherly figure Kakashi was familiar with. Well, Keiko had been a nurse since before Kakashi was born, and she was one of the midwives who delivered him. She was also one of the smaller group of medics who did not refuse to treat him when he was younger just because he was the traitor White Fang's son. "You know, the room we usually reserved for you is taken by some wealthy merchant, and he's the worst leech we have since Jiraiya-san," Keiko continued, her face full of disdain and disgust.

"Ah, I can help with that. Let me know when all his visitors have left," Kakashi chuckled as an evil grin started to form on his lips.

At this, Keiko nodded in satisfaction. "Thanks, kid. I knew that giving you special treatment is a wise move."

"Well, it is indeed," Kakashi said with a grin. As Keiko and the other nurses left, Kakashi turned to Gai. "Now Gai, you need to go back inside or both of us will be in big trouble. You know that Keiko-san could be scarier than Tsunade if she wished to."

"Ah, I suppose I can take a day off to rest," Gai conceded. "But what about Lee? Neji-kun is out of commission for a while so he has no one to train with.."

"I'll take care of it, Gai. I do need a sparring partner after all," Kakashi said as he righted Gai so he could sit on bull like he was riding a horse, albeit an oversized one. "Need to keep myself sharp for our next challenge. Can't afford to slack off just because war is over because I know you won't."

"You bet, my eternal rival!" Gai declared as he flashed Kakashi his brightest grin and a thumbs up.

...

After guiding Gai back into his ward and ensuring that he's comfortable on the bed, Kakashi left with Lee to the training ground preferred by Gai's team. Lee began his push up regime as Kakashi did his warm up stretches and started on his kata. As Lee was finishing his push up, Kakashi told him to get ready and take off his weights.

"Gai-sensei would prefer me to use the weights when training.. I was only to take it off when doing missions above B-rank or during the war," Lee informed with a frown.

"Ah, this is more for me to gauge how much I can handle hand to hand combat with taijutsu masters now that I no longer have the sharingan."

"Well then, I will not be holding back, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Gai would be displeased if you do," Kakashi said as his eyes creased from a smile. "Begin!"

And with that, Lee leapt and launched a kick on Kakashi's chest, only for Kakashi to block it. As Kakashi was launching a fist towards his stomach, Lee rolled sideways to evade it. Before Lee could land on the ground, Kakashi did a sweep on Lee's direction with his leg. Lee easily blocked it and used the momentum to do a backflip away from Kakashi to regain his form. But before Lee could complete a flip, Kakashi appeared behind him and aimed a kick on his back. Lee shot out his arm to balance on Kakashi's feet briefly, and then used Kakashi's shoulder to push him in an upward trajectory to leap away and land on a tree branch. Lee pushed off the branch as he saw Kakashi coming, his punch connected to the branch breaking it and causing Lee to lose his foothold. Lee gracefully landed on the ground and began to lunge at Kakashi, who turned around immediately expecting his punch.

Punches were traded with occasional kicks being used and for every hit Lee landed on Kakashi, he received two in return. As the spar went on, Lee started to get overwhelmed as Kakashi seemed to have sped up, which was weird because Lee had high endurance and it was very difficult to tire him. Lee's eyes widened as he realised that he should have evaded that particular kick instead of blocking it, because the power of the kick sent him flying across the training ground, and he only stopped because he his back hit a tree with a 'thump'.

"Are you ok, Lee?" Kakashi asked as he appeared beside Lee.

"Yes I'm fine, I'm used to this while sparring with Neji-kun," Lee replied with a grunt as he tried to straighten himself. He shot Kakashi a grateful smile as he took the hand Kakashi offered.

"Sorry, I think I used too much chakra in that kick, I'm not used to controlling the strength yet."

"Did you use chakra towards the end of the spar to increase your speed, Sensei?"

"Yes," Kakashi replied as he shoved his hands in his pocket. "It was still easy enough for me to fight most opponents without the sharingan. But to fight someone as proficient as you are in a taijutsu it gets rather difficult. I can still imagine what movement you might take based on your stance and calculating it with the arena around us, but it's not the same as the instantaneous prediction I could get with the sharingan. But you did really well in forcing me to use this much chakra to defeat you."

"You're too kind, Kakashi-sensei! It just means that I need to train even more now if I ever dream of defeating you!"

"You would probably already won if I didn't use any of my chakra."

"But the enemy shinobi will not refrain from using chakra just because I can't. That's why I need to train more!"

"Well, I'm glad that you're very enthusiastic in your training."

"That's because what I lack in talent, I will make up with hard work!"

"Well, Gai said that he would like to teach you samurai fighting style?" Kakashi asked and was responded with a very enthusiastic nod. "Then when you master the stance I'll teach you how to swing a sword. We will be training with both katana and kodachi. I could train you to use a tanto too, but I think kunai has the same effect."

"That would be great! Thank you, Kakashi-sensei! Thank you!" Lee said with a bow.

Kakashi smiled as he ruffled the boy's head. "It's no problem at all. After all, there may be a curriculum change in the academy soon and we would need someone who knows how to use swords properly to teach the next generation."

"Yosh! I will train hard and not disappoint you! And I shall now continue with my training! 500 more push ups, 1000 sit ups, 1000 squats and 100km run for my daily work out! If you excuse me now, Kakashi-sensei!" Lee said with a salute.

"Well, have fun, but don't push yourself too hard," Kakashi replied while returning the salute. Lee was then off to continue his training, not forgetting to put back his weights on his arms and legs. Kakashi chuckled as he knew that his advice had fallen on deaf ears.

As Kakashi trekked back to the hospital, he reminded himself to pick up some weights on his way home tonight to start conditioning his body. He couldn't let himself lose to Lee. After all, he was still young enough to compete with those kids.

...

"Tsunade-sama said that my leg will never be like before," Gai said as Kakashi shut his ward door close. Gai had gotten another wheelchair, a sturdier one this time.

"What are you planning to do then?"

"The only other thing beside taijutsu that I can do is teach. I'm going to apply to the academy and hopefully will be assigned as a taijutsu instructor."

"Aaa..."

"I'll get Lee to demonstrate. All I need to do is watch their form and correct them if they're wrong."

"Hmmm. Sounds like a plan. How are you holding up?"

"I don't regret my decision one bit. It was an honor being able to land some pretty solid hits on Madara," Gai said with a grin.

"I suppose so," Kakashi replied as his lips curved up in a smile.

"What are you planning to do now?" Gai asked as he wheeled his wheelchair closer to the wall Kakashi was leaning on.

"I'm taking up gardening. Don't think that I have much time to get it done though."

"Ooh?"

"You're very welcome to help."

"Paper works?"

"Yep."

"Well, anything is better than being stuck here. Although, I believe that we have a mission from Keiko-san before we can commence on our gardening project?" Gai asked with a gleam in his eyes.

"Oh, we do indeed. Do you have anything particular in mind?"

"I'll leave the creative directions to you, you can be worse than Naruto with pranks after all."

"Well, let's say that I learnt it from the best," Kakashi said with a sadistic grin that made Gai barked out a laugh.  
…

"I don't know what you did, kid, and I don't want to know. But thank you, and the younger ones are especially grateful for it," Keiko said with a warm smile as she gave Kakashi's shoulder a squeeze. "You too, great work, Gai-kun. Whatever you and Kakashi-kun did back there."

"It was no problem, Keiko-san! We are very happy to help, and it's nice to be able to get out of my ward," Gai replied with a grin.

"Oh yes, and I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that the old leech will never ask for any sponge bath ever again." Kakashi supplied helpfully.

"Hmm.. but what should I say if he complaints? Tsunde-sama and Sakura-san will have a good laugh, but I'm afraid Shizune-san won't approve.." Keiko asked with a frown.

"There's a lot of genin going in and out of the hospital as of now. Just deny any knowledge or responsibilities on the staffs' part and it will be chucked as harmless children's prank."

"You have thought this through, have you?"

"Let's just say that I got the idea from a very irritable pregnant lady who had promised further retribution to Jiraiya even after she had personally put him in the hospital. In her defense, Jiraiya did corrupt her husband his 'dirty books'," Kakashi replied with a fond smile on his lips.

Keiko shook her head in amusement as she gathered some medical files in her hands. "You've had your fun. Now shoo. Gai-kun really needs to rest before he's cleared for discharge. The more rest the faster his papers will be approved."

Both Kakashi and Gai gave Keiko a salute as Kakashi wheeled Gai back to his room. Kakashi would hang out and chat with Gai and wait until Sakura's morning shift was over. If they were lucky, his group of ninken would be bringing them some scrolls to look over, and Gai wouldn't die from the boredom that was hospitalisation.

…

Sakura looked tired. Scratch that, she looked beyond exhausted. "It's just the sheer volume of patients, Sensei. I didn't use that much chakra today, since most patients have been stable from Katsuyu's first aid treatment after the war. Besides, I was just monitoring the trainees," Sakura said to reassure Kakashi who looked very concerned. "I could still train with you now, but not for long since I have to come back for a double shift tonight.."

"Don't you need to rest before your double shift? You've just done 8 hours of work, and another 16 hours of continuous work is no joke.."

"Nah, I'm used to this," Sakura said with a shrug. "Besides, a short sparring session won't last more than two hours, right? I could still totally squeezed in a good six hour nap time after the spar."

Kakashi shook his head at her suggestion. "Go home and rest, Sakura," he said while handing her two genjutsu scrolls. "Just find me once you can squeeze in some time to read it," Kakashi said as his eyes creased from his smile. "I know you that you will be extremely busy especially in these few days, so don't worry about sparring with me."

"But.. Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura protested. He was of course right about her being busy with the hospital. But if Kakashi was to be called for a mission before he could adjust to the loss of his sharingan, if anything was to happen to him because she couldn't keep a simple promise..

Kakashi could _see_ more protests coming his way by the way Sakura was chewing on her bottom lips and furrowing her eyebrows in concentration. He knew that she was formulating her arguments on why she needed to still train with him despite her exhaustion. "The hospital needs your skills more than I do. For now, I'll just have to make do with Lee.." Kakashi said teasingly. "Don't feel bad about not being able to train with me. Think about it as doing Lee a favour too. I'm sure you've heard about Gai, and Neji's still out for the count for quite some time. It's all good, Sakura."

"Are you sure though?"

Kakashi simply nodded and smiled as ruffled her hair. He was glad that he could convince Sakura; who was was too tired to even scowl at him for messing up her hair.

…

A/N

1\. Kakashi may seem OOC with how he not only offered to train with Sakura, but with Lee too. And on top of it, he's giving free lessons? What happened to the shitty genin teacher that was Hatake Kakashi? Who only taught his students how to climb trees and nothing else?

This is going to be a long essay, so be warned. And this is just my take on Kakashi's character.

I see Kakashi as a character who cares a lot about his comrades, so I think he was not going to let his genin team running around taking missions without adequate training. He probably teaches them other things too, but not as much as we would have liked to see. Also, Kakashi was in ANBU, and the only reason he 'left' was because Sandaime practically kicked him out for having too many deaths wishes. And in ANBU, I see it as a brotherhood/sisterhood of some sort, so you can never really get out of it. I see Kakashi still being involved, rather heavily with ANBU (cue first chapter). And really, he was asked to babysit 3 brats and watched them carrying out menial D-rank missions. I don't blame him for getting bored and take a couple of difficult but short missions to not lose his mind.

In addition to all that, I think we need to see Kakashi's character progression. When he was a child, before Sakumo's death, he really idolized him to the extent that he adopted Sakumo's nindo of 'comrades before mission', even after Sakumo 'fell into disgrace'. I think Kakashi only stopped taking the philosophy when Sakumo killed himself, because that philosophy ultimately killed the person Kakashi loved most in the world. After that, born was the 'rules rules rules' pain in the butt teenage Kakashi. Because really, if his previous philosophy was wrong, the right philosophy will be the opposite of that. And because the philosophy changed, what he lived for will change too. Before, Kakashi lived for his comrades, and his dad, and himself, just like any normal kid. And then, he changed. I think his goal would be to be the best shinobi ever was that stick to the rules like a super glue because he wanted to prove his dad wrong, and prove to himself that his dad was wrong, and Sakumo had just made a mistake and not a shitty shinobi everyone around him made him out to be. Because while Kakashi was sad, maybe even felt betrayed by Sakumo's suicide, Kakashi still loved him very very much. Then Obito died. And so Kakashi realized that there needs to be a balance in the philosophy he held. Rules are there as a guideline, but if your comrade's lives are at stake, rules are meant to be broken. So he continued living, with new outlook of life, and new goal of protecting Rin, who died too. And this cause Kakashi to lose his reason to live. So he joined the ANBU, and began taking difficult missions, working himself to death. He had no reason to live, and no one will miss him if he died. He would sacrifice himself so that those who had someone else to live for will not have to die for the village. Then Minato, who was Hokage at the time saw how self-destructive Kakashi was and made him watch Kushina, in the hope that Kakashi would have something new to look forward to, to live for. To protect Kushina and unborn Naruto. And then the Kyuubi attacked, so Kakashi lost two more very precious people. (I will go on why Kakashi did not just adopt Naruto – or do something? In another A/N rant. lol). So all these time before Sandaime kicked him out of ANBU in preparation of him taking care of the team with Naruto and Sasuke, Kakashi would have revert back to his self-destructive path of going for missions after missions in the hope of dying on the frontlines for the village, while preventing someone with people to come home to from dying from such missions. He essentially does not have any will to live or any goal for the future. Then came team 7, and now he has a new reason to live for, to protect these kids until they are ready to be shinobi who are at least good enough to not die pointlessly on the field.

So now, after the war, since Kakashi have had closure with his dad (cue Pein attack) and Obito during the war, he could look forward to living again. And [spoiler alert for the next chapter] Kakashi was going to be appointed as Hokage. So he has a lot to look forward to, more responsibilities to attend to and most importantly, more people to protect. Hence now when he could still have the time, he needs to start planting seeds (not roots) so that the next generations of ninja would be well looked after.

Yosh! And that was a really long essay.

2\. I will be exploring why Kakashi have 'his own' hospital ward in the subsequent chapters.

3\. Yes, Lee's regiments is a nod to Saitama (One Punch Man). I just thought that since Lee is a ninja we should increase the regiment a teeny tiny bit of ten times.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kakashi sipped his sake quietly through his mask as he watched Tsunade chugged her 10th bottle of the night. He was really impressed - Tsunade should be the same age as his parents and she still managed to pull such a feat. And he knew for a fact that Tsunade must have gone wild yesterday, when alcohol was free for all. He wondered about how her liver was coping, but reminded himself that she was the best medic the shinobi world have ever seen, so that should be the least of anyone's worry.

"So Hatake," Tsunade began. "When can you start?"

"I believe that there are still things I should learn before taking over.."

"Bullshit," Tsunade cut him while fixing him a glare." I know that you know all there were to know about being a Hokage. You've basically shadowed Minato throughout his whole stint, and you know all there were to know about the village's secrets and innerworkings. You were the ANBU captain, and you are still deeply entrenched in their affairs. You've investigated Root to the core after Danzo's death. Hell, you probably know more than I do about most of the shinobi in the active roster, and I knew you always read the file of whichever shinobi was assigned to be your partner," she said with an accusing look. It was a hefty, very punishable offense to intrude on someone's personal file without the Hokage's order, but the fact that all the Hokages since Minato had allowed him that leeway meant something. Kakashi knew that Minato was lenient just because he was his student, and Hiruzen.. The old Hokage did try to groom him into a potential candidate, since both Jiraiya and Tsunade's whereabouts were unknown, and the possibility of Danzo rising to power was just too terrifying and destabilising.

"I haven't found everything there is to know about Root yet," Kakashi replied quietly.

"Do you think there is a need to investigate before you take up the position?"

"Yes. I believe investigating it and uprooting the organisation now would be for the best. I have more flexibility, and if anything should happen, you can still cover up for me. It will look better on the Hokages track record.." Kakashi hummed with an innocent smile.

At his words, Tsunade snorted and put her sake bottle away. "Smartass, you sound more and more like your dad each day.."

"Ah.."

"Are you still affected by what happened?" Tsunade asked gently. Any trace of drunken stupor was gone as she stared at him intently.

"No.. Not really," Kakashi said softly. After a deafening pause that seemed to go on forever, Kakashi cleared his voice and started again, "I had a talk with him."

Tsunade was quiet. She had burning questions to ask, when? what happened? how? But she knew that he needed space. When he was ready to talk, he will. If he was willing to talk to her about this.

"During Pein's attack, I died." Kakashi spoke, as he reached for a bottle instead of his sake cup. He took a sip of the poisonous, flammable liquid. The burning sensation and the buzz was good. "In what seemed like the afterlife, I met Otou-san. We talked."

Tsunade's continued silence and complete attention prompted him to go on. "He apologised for what he did, for leaving me. And I.. I have forgiven him for a long time." Kakashi took a big gulp. He needed more buzz. "I told him that, and also how proud I was at him. For doing what he did, for not abandoning a comrade," Kakashi finished as he emptied the bottle he was holding.

"Your father was a good man," Tsunade said. "He was stronger than me, and smarter than Orochimaru. He was a gentleman too, unlike Jiraiya," Tsunade reminisced, her last sentence barely above a whisper.

"Ah.."

"Do you remember much about him?"

"I remembered him always being present in my life. Despite his missions, I felt that he was always.. there. I don't know how he does it but he was a good father," Kakashi mused as he swirled his now empty bottle. It felt nice, to finally being able to talk about his father. He had thought that with Jiraiya dead, there was no one else he could talk about him with.

"Gaki, if you buy me more sake, I may just share more stories about him," Tsunade said teasingly. Her tone was playful, but Kakashi could see her softening features, something that almost never happened with the current Hokage.

"I'll be looking forward to it then, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said as he got up from his table. He left a few ryo bills before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Brat," Tsunade muttered with a smile, as she opened and chugged another bottle. Kakashi was one of his most trusted soldiers, just after Shizune and Sakura. Seeing him having life returning to his eyes was a good thing. She did not know how he was like in his youth, but that sparkle that he had, that she had only seen when he was still a kid had been missing for a long, long time. She was glad that her friend's son was finally getting back on track.

…

As Sakura's double shift was ending, Kakashi decided to buy her some food. He knew that she will not be eating during her shift or between the shifts, as she was too busy and too in-demand to catch any breaks. After purchasing an assortment of tempuras; three pieces of fried ebi, two matsutake mushrooms, two pumpkins, a piece of carrot, lotus root and bamboo shoot each, and also what seemed to be a diabetes inducing syrupy dango, he headed towards the hospital. Just as he was walking out of the dango shop, a soft voice greeted him, "Good afternoon, Kakashi-sensei."

"Hinata-chan," Kakashi greeted. "A shift, or visiting Neji?"

"Both," Hinata replied softly. "I'm currently filling in more shifts because Ino-chan still needed some time to herself."

"Ah.." That explains why Sakura was so swamped at work. Ino was afterall, the second best medic in her generation after Sakura. "How is Neji?"

"Nii-san is stable. He hasn't woken up yet but according to Tsunade-sama and Sakura-san, he should be waking up in a few days," Hinata answered softly.

"You know Hinata-chan, Neji-kun will not be happy if he knows that you are still blaming yourself. He did protect you out of his own volition. It is not your fault," Kakashi reminded.

"I know that, Kakashi-sensei. It's just that.. if I was stronger, if I was more useful.."

"You were useful during the war, and you are strong. Besides, Neji-kun will be fine, wouldn't he?" Kakashi asked as his eyes creased into his trademark smile.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," Hinata said gratefully. "Is that lunch for Sakura-san? I could take it to her.."

"Maa.. She probably needs to be dragged away from her work, and I think you're too nice to scold her for working to hard.."

Hinata giggled at that. "She only listens to Tsunade-sama.."

"Or threats involving telling Tsunade that she has been overworking."

Hinata laughed at his words. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

"You already thanked me, Hinata-chan," Kakashi said bemusedly.

Hinata was glad that she had bumped into Kakashi. Despite never really talking to him much, she had known from observing others' interactions with him that Kakashi seemed to always know what to say in any situations. She did feel so much better after Kakashi's reassurance that Neji's almost fatal injury was really not because of her incompetence. And it was also really nice to finally be able to laugh again.

After a few minutes of walking in a companionable silence, Hinata braved herself to ask the burning questions she had had since she had peeked into the contents of the take-out Kakashi was holding.

"Ano.. Sensei? Can I ask a question?"

"You're asking it now aren't you?" Kakashi asked teasingly, amusement clearly sparkling in his eyes.

"Ah.. ano.." Hinata blushed as she did not have a response. As she was silently berating herself for saying something so stupid, Kakashi's chuckle broke her thoughts. As she saw his encouraging look, Hinata tried again, "How do you know that those are exactly what Sakura-san always gets?"

"The same reason you know her exact order. I don't think she eats anything else," Kakashi said conspiringly.

With a laugh, Hinata bowed at Kakashi as she turned into Neji's ICU room while Kakashi continued his trek towards Sakura's office.

"One minute!" Sakura bellowed at the knocks on her door. She was so swamped with work. It wasn't until ten minutes ago that she had finally been able to sit down in her 16 hours shift. And now she had to organise her patients' files after writing down as much details as she could remember. As for the things she had forgotten, she had scribbled little notes for the interns to follow up and ask the patients on the details she had missed…

"Your shift is over," Kakashi's reminded as he set her late lunch on her desk.

"I know.. It's just that I still have these to be sorted. Details to write down, and organising the stack back alphabetically.." Sakura mumbled as she glanced at the food he brought. She could feel her stomach rumbling when she caught a whiff on the delicious smell of the food.

"Get the interns to organise it."

"But we're very understaffed right now, even the interns are busy.." Sakura pouted. She would usually gladly delegate such menial tasks, but there was no one to delegate to with the hospital overflowing with patients.

With a sigh, Kakashi slowly pushed himself off the door frame he was leaning on. "All you need is for that pile on the floor to be organised alphabetically, right?" Kakashi asked as he walked towards the mess of papers on the floor. Sakura had picked up Tsunade's bad habit of laying important documents on the floor, disorganised, only for someone else to put them back on order. As Sakura's head bobbed absentmindedly in response to his question, Kakashi sat on the floor and began to sort through the files.

"You don't have to do that, sensei! I can do it once I've finished writing.. " Sakura squeaked as she realised what he was doing. She was really glad for his help, but she felt really bad making Kakashi work on something he didn't have to. Plus, he already bought her lunch..

"Don't worry about it," Kakashi said as his eyes creased. "While the medics are busy, ordinary shinobi have nothing better to do than to get drunk, get into brawls or read porn.." At Sakura's stiffening posture and redness of her cheeks, Kakashi smirked as he counted to three, when Sakura finally fixed him with a glare that would be terrifying if not for how red her face was. "Would you like me to read Icha-Icha here instead?" Kakashi asked innocently.

Sakura huffed and get back to her work. "Organise the file," Sakura told him briskly. Kakashi chuckled in response as he continued to stack the files in order.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said gratefully as she handed the last file. Kakashi hummed in acknowledgement as he stood up, arms full of papers.

As Sakura reached for her stethoscope and looped it around her neck, Kakashi spoke, "What are you doing, Sakura?"

"I'm just going for one last round."

"Go home," Kakashi ordered as he placed the stack of papers on her desk and plucked the stethoscope from her.

"But.."

"No buts, go home."

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"Go home or I'll tell Tsunade."

"You can't do that!" Sakura complained indignantly. Tsunade will wring her neck and strap her into a bed on forced time off.

"I can, and I will if you don't go home now."

"But.."

"Hinata's here. And I saw Shizune when I came up." Kakashi said as he continued to stare down at her.

"Fine." Sakura sighed as she took off her white coat and placed it around her chair. As she was reaching for the take-out Kakashi had gotten her, Sakura staggered, and a hand shot up to hold on to her elbow to steady her.

Go find Naruto on your way home." Kakashi advised as he took a closer look on her face. While she looked perfectly fine on the surface, he saw her slightly dilated pupil and stiffness on her upper and lower eyelids, which caused her eyes to be open slightly wider than its normal size. "Get Naruto to transfer some chakra for you, and just how many hyorogans have you had?"

"I only had two," Sakura answered in a petulant tone. At Kakashi's unbelieving stare and a raise of eyebrow, Sakura sighed, "I didn't count. Maybe I had five or six.."

"Why did you need so many? I thought you said that most patients were stable?"

"Two teams returned severely injured yesterday. A group of nuke-nin tried to incite a rebellion in one of Fire's border near Wave since they thought that Konoha would not even have enough intelligence personnel to know of their activities," Sakura said with a sigh. "So among other things, I had to put back a lot of innards into place."

"Hmm.. Were they poisoned too? Wave shinobi are famous for it," Kakashi cringed as he recalled their first mission in wave.

At Sakura's nod, Kakashi sighed as he placed a hand on top of her head. No wonder she was exhausted. He knew that dealing with poisons were troublesome and very tiring. "Go find Naruto now. I won't tell Tsunade this time, but the next time I caught you taking three times the recommended amount, I'll haul you personally to her and watch as she wring your neck."

Sakura gave him a wry look as she hoisted both the take out and her bag into her forearm. She nodded at his salute as he walked off to drop the files at the nurse station, while she dragged her feet towards the hospital exit. Kakashi was right, as he always was. She really needed the extra chakra she could get Naruto to give her.

…

A/N:

1\. Neji's death is the most ridiculous death in Naruto, because I don't see the need and much of the impact, since it is not explored in the series. And since Neji is well loved, why not let him live in this fic? :)

2\. I think poisons will take a lot of effort to deal with. Because you have to extract it from pretty much every cells in the body and it's going to be a long and exhaustive process. That's why antidotes are more effective. I'd assume that since the teams were brought in for emergency, Sakura would have to start on the extraction process while identifying the process and wait for someone to concoct the antidote.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sakura knocked on the worn-down green wooden door, hoping that Naruto was home. She could check with chakra probe, but she was just too tired to use it. Luckily for her, she could hear things falling, bouncing and even breaking. The strings of curses coming from the blond was a giveaway too.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto chirped as he opened his door and ushered her in. Sakura grimaced as she took in his living condition. While it wasn't filthy, it was messy. Very messy. "So what are you doing here?"

"I need chakra transfer," Sakura replied as she took off her shoes and tiptoed around his living room on her way to his kitchen. She paused when she saw the figure sitting on the dining table, then shrugged her shoulders as she took a seat opposite of Sasuke. "I thought you're still on quarantine?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What baa-chan doesn't know won't hurt! Besides, it's not like Sasuke will be doing anything.."

"It's the public, Naruto. We all know that Sasuke-kun will not be doing anything wrong, but the public have yet to trust him again."

"Eh, if it makes you feel better Sasuke had a henge all the way here."

"It doesn't." Sakura deadpanned.

"Kakashi knows I'm here," Sasuke supplied.

"WHAT?" Both Naruto and Sakura asked in unison. Kakashi, while on the surface seemed lackadaisical and carefree, was actually a stickler for rules, unless a comrade's life was involved. The three of them learnt it the hard way when they were genins. His punishments for rule-breaking were borderline cruel, and it still brought a shiver down Sakura's spine remembering what he made her do.

"I assume he wanted something in return," Sasuke explained. Naruto shrugged at his explanation, not thinking much about it. He was pretty happy being able to hang out with Sasuke. Sakura on the other hand, furrowed her eyebrows. If Kakashi allowed a rule of this scale to be broken, he was angling for something really serious, potentially dangerous even.

"Nee, nee, Sakura-chan. Do you want some ramen? I was about to make some for myself and Teme," Naruto asked, breaking Sakura out of her thoughts.

"I'm good, Naruto. I have food," Sakura replied as she showed him her takeout. Naruto shrugged as he made a clone to cook some ramen, while his real self began transferring chakra to Sakura.

"What have you been doing in the hospital? You're almost like, drained dry!"

"The war was just a few days ago, Usuratonkachi."

"Teme! Shut up! That's not what I meant. Shouldn't the hospital be having a schedule or something? All the medic nins are back in the village and I remembered that there were almost no medic casualties," Naruto questioned as he pushed more chakra into Sakura.

"I was doing major surgeries in the past few days, there's just too many of them.."

"But shouldn't baa-chan help? I saw her on the Hokage office just stamping papers."

"Shishou helped handling the emergency cases. She's the Hokage, you know. There are other immediate duties besides healing the sick. Besides, Shizune-san and I are enough to handle it." Sakura replied as she sagged in her seat. It felt good to have her power returning..

"Only the two of you were handling the major cases?" Sasuke asked.

"Ino and Hinata-chan were supposed to come in too. But Hinata-chan has been caring for Neji, while Ino still needed some time to herself."

"If there's still more surgeries I can send a clone. I can transfer my chakra to both you and nee-chan!" Naruto cut in with a huge grin.

"Thank you, Naruto. That will be very helpful." Sakura smiled at Naruto gratefully. He, in turn, beamed back at her.

"All done!" He cheered as he plopped himself next to Sasuke, and just on cue, his clone returned with a tray full of ramen.

"Itadakimasu!" Naruto exclaimed as he began digging on his first cup of ramen.

Sakura muttered the same while Sasuke grunted the pleasantry. She watched as Naruto struggled to eat with his left hand and Sasuke eating slowly and carefully, still not used to having only one hand to eat. It felt almost surreal, seeing Sasuke there with them. Just a few days ago, they were still trying to drag him back to Konoha by hook or by crook, and now, it seemed like he was always home with them.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow as he caught her staring. "Nice eye," Sakura smirked referring to his blackened eye. Sasuke scowled lightly as he gave Naruto a glare. While both of them were bruised and battered after the brawl, the signs were gone completely from Naruto. The kyuubi's regenerative capabilities grated Sasuke's nerve. It wasn't fair, and it made it seem like it was a one-sided beat down.

"Yeah.. I didn't think that our alcohol tolerance would be so low. I've seen how much ero-sennin drank. And baa-chan drank even more!"

Sasuke grunted in agreement with Naruto. In his travels, he had never seen anyone getting drunk from just a bottle of sake.

"What sake did you guys drink?"

"Hmm.. I'm not sure. But the bottle was clear and it has some weird writing that I've never seen before.."

"Where did you get it?" Sakura asked cautiously. If what they've had was what Sakura thought it was..

"A merchant gave it to me as thanks since I helped rebuild his house."

Yep, Sakura was right. It was definitely that foreign drink people called vodka, which was about twice as strong as undiluted sake. She sighed as she gave then an amused look. She ignored Sasuke's questioning look as she opened her food container. A smile tugged on her lips as she saw the content. There was her favorite food, exactly how she liked it.

"Sakura-chan, could you heal Teme after we eat? I tried healing him but nothing worked. Healing Kakashi-sensei's eye has been a fluke afterall.." Naruto pouted as he poked on his noodle. It would really be handy if he could do what he did with Kakashi's eye to his and Sasuke's arms..

"I was really hoping that you could use that jutsu again. It would be nice to replicate it.." Sakura said whistfully. Just imagine the applications! Organ regrowth, organ cloning, and even cloning a person!

"Sorry, Sakura-chan.."

"It's not your fault, Naruto.. Medical advances will just have to wait a little longer.."

"Hmm.." Naruto agreed as he began slurping his ramen again. "Maybe I'll remember something if I watch you heal Teme?"

"I'm not healing him," Sakura said dryly. "Both of you were being big idiots when you drank that alcohol. What if you had been sober enough to use chakra? The village is still in the midst of rebuilding from Pein's attack! Do you want to level it again? And what if anyone saw Sasuke-kun drunk and doing questionable activities? He could be kicked out of the village!" Sakura raged at them, eyes blazing with fury. Naruto went pale at her outburst while Sasuke was reduced into a stone statue, shocked that he had been the object of her anger for the first time.

"We are sorry, Sakura."

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan.."

At their remorseful apology, Sakura huffed in satisfaction. "Good," Sakura said as she took out her genjutsu scroll from her bag. She'd read them as she eat and also later when she reached home.

As she was about to open a scroll, she found them being swiped off the table. "Hey!" Sakura shouted at the perpetrator in anger.

"Eat."

"Give me my scrolls back!"

"No."

"Is this revenge because I refused to heal you?" Sakura asked incredulously. Was Sasuke always this petty?

"Once you read a scroll you will read them all. You're supposed to rest before your next shift."

"It's none of your business!"

"You're our teammate," Sasuke deadpanned.

Sakura opened her mouth to retort on what he had said. She had the perfect response, but that was just too cruel. Saying 'that's rich coming from someone who abandoned their teammates for three years' would be uncalled for. Especially since he took her scrolls away because he cared. Sakura promptly clamped her mouth shut and fixed him with a glare instead.

"It will be in your hospital desk tomorrow morning when you arrive."

"You can't just take my things," Sakura seethed.

"Sakura-chan.. I'm siding with Teme on this one. Knowing you, the first thing you do when you reach home is inhale the scroll content. I've given you chakra but your physical body needs rest too."

Sakura turned to fix her glare at Naruto. But seeing those blue eyes filled with concern and knowing that he knew how drained she was, chakra-wise or physically, Sakura's anger deflated and her gaze softened. Both her boys were just concerned about her.

"Fine. First thing in the morning before my 7am shift."

Sasuke grunted in agreement as he rose from the dining table, intact arm full of her scrolls. He then performed one-handed seals and did a henge into the most unmemorable guy Sakura had ever seen. Sasuke's henge was a browned haired, black eyed man, wearing the standard uniform.

"Such a boring henge, right, Sakura-chan?"

"That's the point," Sasuke grunted. Even his voice has no special characteristics whatsoever that would make it impressionable enough to be recalled. Sakura nodded in agreement with Sasuke, eyes wide with wonder. How could he do this so perfectly?

"Are you using any genjutsu?" Sakura asked.

"No. If anyone notice, it will raise suspicion."

"Ah, of course," Sakura muttered. Sasuke really got this disguise thing very well. Was this also one of the things he picked up under Orochimaru's tutelage?

"See ya tomorrow, Teme!" Naruto shouted across the room as he waived his armed excitedly. Sasuke lifted his free arm without looking back and exited the house, closing the door gently after him.

…

Sakura walked home after finishing her meal and listening to Naruto's rambles as they ate. "Tadaima," she called out as she took off her shoes.

"Okaeri," the answer came from the living room. Mebuki frowned as she took in her daughter's appearance. "Sakura, are you alright?"

"I'm alright, mama. Just need rest."

Mebuki was not satisfied with her answer. Her daughter really needs to get rid of her habit of over working.

"Please tell me that at least you have eaten."

"Yep! I ate some tempura from the place you and papa sometimes got me before you guys went on missions."

"We've never bought you tempura.. If there's some, I've always made it," Mebuki said with a frown.

"Really? I sometimes find tempura take out at the dining table after back to back shifts when you guys are gone," Sakura replied in confusion. She had always thought that her parents would buy her favorite tempura when they knew that she would end her shift too late at night when everything would be closed and they would not be home to prepare her something to eat.

"It's not us. In non-urgent missions I would prepare food for you to heat up, and you know that. Maybe the tempura is from one of your friends," Mebuki suggested.

Sakura's eyes widened at her mother's words. So all these time, Kakashi-sensei had been breaking into her house to give her food?

"You figured out who it was?" Mebuki asked knowingly as she saw her daughter's expression.

"Yeah.." Sakura answered as a small smile tugged on her lips. She would never complain again if Kakashi stuck her with the bill after another failed attempt on taking a look at his face.

"Good," Mebuki smiled in amusement as she took Sakura's bag from her arm. "Clean up and get some rest. I'll wake you up before your morning shift tomorrow."

"Thank you, mama," Sakura said gratefully as she gave her mother's cheek a peck before climbing up the stairs to her room.

…

"Good morning, Yamada-kun," Kakashi called out to the brown haired, black eyed ninja.

"Good morning, Kakashi-san," the ninja replied politely.

"That's a lot of scrolls you have."

"Yes, I'm on my way to deliver them."

"Hmm.. Sakura usually skipped breakfast on morning shifts because she tends to oversleep. She likes sweet food, by the way," Kakashi commented idly.

"Ah.."

"Oh, and I'll be in training ground three this morning. You can find me for our upcoming mission discussion after you've done your errand," Kakashi told the man as he gave him a parting salute.

Sasuke let out a small, almost inaudible sigh as he turned back to the cake shop he had just walked passed. He really didn't mind buying some food for Sakura, since he had owed her way too much all these time. But Kakashi knowing that he had left the compound and seemed to be able to find him so easily was unsettling. He had not felt or found any sensory mechanisms that would monitor movements in and out of the compound. He had even masked his chakra signature by blending it with Naruto's chakra. Really, just how did Kakashi found him?

—

Sasuke reached Sakura's office with five minutes to spare. As he was about to leave, he felt Sakura's chakra presence.

"Ah.." Sakura said in surprise. She wanted to call out his name, but frowned as she heard footsteps along the corridor.

"It's Yamada," Sasuke offered. "I will be taking my leave now, Sakura-san."

"Thank you," Sakura replied, and he could see her eyes sparkling in delight, gratitude, and maybe even contentment. Sasuke nodded his head slightly as he turned away from her. He wanted to run, as fast as he could away from her. He was too ashamed of himself. That brilliant sparkle had been lost when he had defected, and Sakura's weren't the only ones. Naruto's eyes too had lost some of the shine that had once been there when he had defected. He had really hurt the people he that loved most, who also cared for him the most.

Sasuke quickened his pace once he was out of the hospital. He walked as fast as what was acceptable towards training ground three. He needed Kakashi to distract him from his thoughts. There was no point dwelling on the past, because no matter how hard he ponder, there was nothing he could do to change it. What he could do instead was to make the future as bright as possible to atone for his mistakes.

"Hello, Sasuke."

"Kakashi," Sasuke greeted back. "Soundproofed?"

"Yes."

"So what do you want from me?" Sasuke asked as he leaned on a tree next to the one Kakashi was leaning on.

"I will need you to do a recon mission that may lead to infiltration, since you're already capable of making such perfect disguise. Orochimaru taught you?"

"It was Kabuto," Sasuke replied "What's the mission premise and whom is this from?"

"I supposed you can say that it's from the next Hokage.."

"Ah.. congratulations," Sasuke said. He wasn't surprised that Kakashi was chosen, he was after all the best jonin in Konoha. And it was a good pick. Kakashi cared about his subordinates, and he wasn't a push over. The council would have little reign over him, and Sasuke knew that Kakashi would not let what had happened to the Uchiha clan happened to anyone else.

"I need to weed out some things before I take the position. I wouldn't have this freedom once I take up the post.." Kakashi informed. Sasuke nodded in response. "All I need is for you to not get caught. Abandon the mission and escape if anything should happen."

"Hn," Sasuke hummed in agreement. He understood the implications, and he had an inkling on what it was exactly that needed weeding. In all honestly, he was glad that it was him that Kakashi had picked. Because it was a dirty job, which suited him just fine. But more importantly, it showed that Kakashi trusted him enough to let him do something this paramount.

"This is your first mission," Kakashi said as he tossed Sasuke a scroll. "You'll probably find my other contact on the job," Kakashi notified as he creased his eyes in a smile. "Any questions?"

"How did you know it's me? And how did you find me?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"Hmm.. When I saw you yesterday, I just knew that it was you," Kakashi shrugged. Really, he didn't know how he had recognized Sasuke in his disguise. Maybe it's because he knew Sasuke pretty well? On top of his ninja intuition? "As for today, I happened to walk passed Sakura's house and she looked well rested. Since she went to Naruto's place yesterday, I assumed that you were there too and took her scrolls away."

"Naruto could have taken it."

Kakashi raised his eyebrow incredulously at Sasuke. "Naruto's as dense as a brick. He wouldn't notice the scrolls unless someone told him something," Kakashi said dryly.

Sasuke chuckled in response as he pushed himself away from his tree. "Is there a time limit for this mission?"

"The sooner it's done, the better. But caution precede haste."

"Hn," Sasuke assented and gave Kakashi a small bow before going on his way back to the Uchiha compound.

…

A/N

1\. Like I said before, Sasuke is a little shit but a misunderstood one. I just want to make Sasuke sound more human. Because Sasuke has a lot of emotions, most Uchiha do, hence the sharingan.

2\. I see Kakashi using Sasuke as his right hand man in dismantling roots because Sasuke is the perfect candidate for it. He's a powerful ninja who is very unlikely to get caught, and he knows subtlety unlike our certain Golden Boy. Also Kakashi probably know how much Sasuke hates Root as an organisation so in a way this is a roundabout way of Kakashi ensuring that Sasuke has his closure. And hopefully become less of a shithead so that his reign is not filled with headaches.

3\. Yamada is not who Sasuke would like to call himself. It's just what Kakashi used it when he first called out to Sasuke in his disguise (since Sasuke wants anonymity and Yamada is apparently one of the most common Japanese male names).

4\. It is very common for adults to still live with their parents until they get married in Asia (and also even after marriage). Especially in Southeast and East Asia. Because really, why pay rent when you can still live in a place where there will always be food for you and you will mostly not have to do your own laundry? Oh and we love our parents too. Very much so. That's totally why we don't move out… But seriously. Asian parents are awesome. (All parents are, I'm just biased). Oh! And take off your shoes when entering the house, you nasties.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sakura did a stretch as she finally completed her rounds. It was satisfying to hear the cracks of air bubbles leaving her joints as she straightened her spine. It had been a fantastic day so far. Firstly, she had woken up well rested and she had been pleasantly surprised by Sasuke who had gotten her breakfast. She did not expect that he could find a really good strawberry cheesecake! Her job earlier wasn't as difficult or draining as it had been in the past few days; she even had a lunch break! How great was that? And to top the day off, she actually finished her shift right on time. It gave her plenty of time to read the scrolls Kakashi gave, heck maybe she could try to find him for a taijutsu training before she read the scrolls. Maybe, just maybe she could wheedle out some genjutsu tips even before reading the texts.

As she stepped out of the hospital, Saskura smiled as she took in her surroundings. It had been a while since she could take a slow walk and appreciate the smallest things around her. It was easy to overlook the scenery Konoha had to offer when she was so on edge, too preoccupied preparing for the war.

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura looked up as she heard Naruto's voice. There he was, with a ton of his clones helping the craftsmen putting together roof tiles. She grinned at him, waving as she watched a clone jumped down in front of her.

"Nee, nee, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"How do you cook vegetables?"

"Huh?" Sakura blurted out in bewilderment. That was a very random question.

"You see, I'm trying to fulfill the promise I had to kaa-chan. She told me to eat healthy and eat lots of veggies. I hate them because they taste gross but a promise is a promise. So now I need to learn how to cook them, since eating them raw will give me stomach ache, right?" Naruto asked with a tilt of his head.

Sakura laughed at his question. It was so Naruto. "Well, vegetables generally won't give you stomach ache even when you eat them raw. What kind of vegetables are you looking at?"

"I don't know the names, all I know is they're all green," Naruto said as his face twisted into a grimace. "They all look gross."

"Don't you at least read what the supermarket said it was?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Eh I don't know since I'm not the one buying them," Naruto shrugged. At Sakura's puzzled look, he continued, "Kakashi-sensei used to drop it at my house while nagging for me to eat them. But nowadays they're just in the fridge."

Sakura smiled softly at what she had heard. She knew that Kakashi cared about his students, but knowing that he had always showed it, thanklessly, and to such lengths was heartwarming. And he also gave Naruto what he craved most, attention, even though the blond was probably too daft to realise it.

"Why don't you show me what you have? I have a bit of time."

"Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed in excitement as he waved at his clones and skipped his way home with an amused Sakura trailing after him.

When Sakura saw the content of Naruto's fridge, she was surprised to not find any foreign growths on it. Then again, Naruto only cooked ramen, and the only content in his fridge were the bowl of vegetables, a few cartons of milk and some eggs. She also realised that Kakashi had purposefully chosen vegetables that didn't need to be cooked. All of them were the basic ingredients to make salad. After telling Naruto that all he needed was to cut them up into bite sized pieces and eat them with salad dressing, she promised to teach him how to cook some other types vegetables next time.

"By the way, Naruto, shouldn't we be having a team 7 plus catch up session soon? We haven't even had all the original team 7 members gathered together since the war. Maybe we should do it over a nabe? There will be lots of veggies, and it will taste good!"

"Isn't nabe a pot where you just boil the ingredients? I've been boiling the veggies and they taste blergh!" Naruto hissed with disgust clear on his voice.

"That's because you boil them with just water. You need to add seasonings to make them taste good."

"Oh! like ramen!"

"Yes, like ramen. But don't use ramen seasoning, 'cos it's not healthy. There are other things that you can use to season your food. I'll take you to the supermarket in my next day off," Sakura offered as she gave him a soft smile. Naruto, despite being the village hero and also the saviour of the shinobi world, will always be Naruto to her. He will always be the gullible brother she never had.

…

When Sakura got home, she could smell miso soup being cooked. She peeked into the kitchen and saw her mother humming while mixing the soup. "Do we have eggplants, mama?" Sakura asked as she began to rummage through the fridge.

"It's on the bottom drawer. Are you trying to suck up to your Kakashi-sensei?" Mebuki asked teasingly.

"NO!" Sakura denied. At her mother's knowing look, she cowed, "well, not really.."

"So it's a yes."

"Maybe," Sakura answered sheepishly as she began to cut up the eggplant and added them to the soup. At her mother's echoing laughter, Sakura began to giggle too. Mothers always knew what was up.

…

With a soup container in her hand, and a couple of onigiri, courtesy of her mother, Sakura began to walk over to Kakashi's house. She had sent out katsuyu and her summon had confirmed that her target was home. As Sakura reached his apartment building, she didn't bother with the stairs. Instead, she leaped up to his floor and landed just outside of his door.

"It's not locked," came a voice from inside.

Sakura slowly opened the door to see Kakashi lounging on his couch, almost buried in a pile of scrolls. He gave her an eye-crease and motioned her to come in, while he started to tidy up the mess.

"I see that you've come to bribe me."

"It's not bribe," Sakura said with an eye roll. After putting her shoes aside, she padded towards his dining table. "Thank you for always buying me food, sensei. And for Naruto too."

"Maa.. It's nothing," Kakashi said bashfully. Sakura squinted her eyes at Kakashi's direction. Were Kakashi's ears red? It coudn't be.. Or could it?

"I'm impressed that you know exactly what I wanted eat."

"You eat the exact same thing every time we go on missions. It's not S-ranked jutsu*."

"But you remember my exact order, even Ino still got it wrong till now."

"Well my memory is just that much better than hers," Kakashi said with a shrug.

"She won't be too happy hearing that."

"She won't," Kakashi conceded. "How is she coping?"

Sakura sighed. "I don't know.. I haven't spoken to her since we returned. I'm actually planning to see her tomorrow and maybe drag her to binge watch on some trashy romcom movies while binging on ice cream.."

"Sounds fun."

"Yep, it would be. Getting sick from too much ice cream is always worth it, even the calories."

Sakura waved off Kakashi's incredulous look as she set the table for him.

"Are you up for some training?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm.. I'm free for the rest of the day. What's your shift looking like?"

"I have the midnight shift later tonight and depending on the patient volume I may get a day off tomorrow instead of another midnight shift."

"Then we'll get you started on your genjutsu practice before taijutsu sparring."

"Sounds good," Sakura said as she plopped herself on Kakashi's chair and began to open her scroll. Kakashi took a seat opposite her and clapped his hand in appreciation to the food. A thought suddenly popped into Sakura's head, maybe she could use this opportunity to peak under his mask..

And when Sakura glanced back up at Kakashi, she saw that the miso soup has been demolished and he had taken a bite of the onigiri on his hand. Sakura narrowed her eyes at Kakashi. She had only looked away for what, a second?

"Hmm?" Kakashi tilted his head quizzically, looking far way too innocent. So, Sakura did what a mature kunoichi her age would at the situation. She scowled at him and confiscated the rest of the onigiri, keeping the plate right next to her, out of reach from Kakashi. Satisfied with herself, she want back to reading.

Just as her eyes found the text she had left off, she felt a breeze next to her. As she looked to her right, she saw that the onigiri plate was empty. She immediately turned her head towards Kakashi and she saw him munching down a mouthful while holding the last piece of onigiri. Sakura pouted and sighed in resignation. All those progress and she still couldn't take a peek on her sensei's face.

"You're still a hundred years too early, o' young grasshopper," Kakashi said mockingly as he gave her a smirk.

"Hmph!" Sakura turned her head away from him as her pout deepen. It's not fair! She was so sooo close she could taste the victory of winning that longstanding bet. Just how did Kakashi do it?

Kakashi stood up from his seat towards Sakura. As he began to ruffle her hair, and Sakura immediately swatted his hand away, still petulantly not looking at him. Kakashi chuckled as he walked to his couch to get some of the document.

"Is there any tips you can give me before I read these scrolls?" Sakura asked as Kakashi returned to his seat.

"Everything there is pretty much self explanatory. Just read through it, and once you think you've understood enough you're very welcome to test it out on me."

Sakura nodded as Kakashi and her began to read in silence. The genjutsu he had picked for her were anesthesia and camouflage, which would be very useful for a front line medic nin like her. And true enough, the scrolls were easy to understand, and she could apply it easily. In just under two hours, she had two new genjutsu under her belt.

"So, sensei," Sakura called out as she rolled up her scrolls. "What did you make Sasuke-kun do? Since you knew that he was breaking his confinement rule?"

"Hmm? Nothing too bad I suppose."

Sakura shuddered at his answer. She didn't believe him. If it's 'nothingtoo bad', he would have told her, like that time he let her and Sasuke watched Naruto catch Tora and bathe the feral cat on his own. And when the hilarity of the situation started to turn into pity for their teammate, Kakashi made Naruto groom the devil cat as well.

"Don't worry too much about it, Sakura. It's really nothing _that_ bad," Kakashi said with a laugh.

"By the way you're saying it, I almost feel a shred of pity for him. Though he probably deserves whatever it was you made him do for leaving us."

"Are you still upset about it?"

"No. I've forgiven him. Sasuke-kun will always be forgiven," Sakura said wryly. It was true, no matter how badly Sasuke hurt her or Naruto, the two of them would always find it in their hearts to forgive him.

"Hard to be mad at the boy you love?" Kakashi asked playfully as he wagged his eyebrows suggestively at her.

Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but closed it almost immediately. She did not know how to reply him. She needed to stop and think, which was weird. She had always loved Sasuke, right?

"So?" Kakashi asked. He was not prying too much, wasn't he? Sakura had always been very open with her love proclamation to Sasuke..

"I.. I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I'm not entirely sure.. But when they were both bleeding half to death in their battle, I did not rush to Sasuke-kun's side.." Sakura started. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "When we found them in their conditions, my only thought was that I needed to save both of them. At that moment, Sasuke-kun was not more important than Naruto which was weird, because just a few years ago I would have dropped everything to make sure that Sasuke-kun was alright, even if it means abandoning Naruto and everyone else.." Sakura rambled with a shaky breath, remembering the night Sasuke left. She would have abandoned Konoha and everyone she cared about just to follow Sasuke, had he let her. "It's so weird that I don't seem to hold Sasuke-kun in the same pedestal as I did before. And that I care about Sasuke-kun as much as I care about Naruto.."

After a few moments of silence, Sakura realised just who she was talking to. She groaned as she buried her face in her hands, "I'm sorry for rambling, Sensei."

"With Ino out of commission for the time being, I don't mind listening to your love adventures," Kakashi said with a teasing glint, causing Sakura's face to turn red.

"Ugh, what have I done," Sakura moaned miserably. She really really made a huge mistake opening her big mouth.

"Well, you'll have time to figure everything out. It's not like Sasuke will run away any time soon."

"Yeah," Sakura sighed. How did talking about something so innocent like Sasuke's punishment turned her thoughts into such muddled mess?

"Should we practice some taijutsu now?" Kakashi asked, changing the subject as he got up from his chair.

"Yes!" Sakura said eagerly. Anything to get Kakashi to stop teasing her. That was mortifying!

…

Sakura slumped against the tree behind her as she was sent flying by a particularly hard kick to her abdomen. Just 15 minutes into sparring, she was already so exhausted that she could feel lactic acid building up in her muscles. The ninjustsu that she had activated in the beginning of the spar to clear the build-up was not fast enough to catch up. And to think that she could usually spar for hours! She glared at Kakashi, who was not even winded.

"How could you improve so much in just three days? This is so unfair!" Sakura groaned. Three days ago she could almost land a hit. But now, she felt like a genin again.

"I have been training intensively with Lee," Kakashi replied as he sat beside her to check the damage he did. Noting that nothing was broken and she was just bruised, Kakashi placed his hand on her shoulder to transfer her some chakra, just enough for her to heal herself.

"But how?" Sakura asked as she gave him a grateful nod and began to soothe over her blackened skin.

"I started using chakra when training with Lee to improve my speed. And using chakra means I need less muscle movements, which reduces fatigue."

"But aren't you not exhausted? The chakra consumption for that is pretty large."

"Not at all," Kakashi said with a grin. "I can almost do four times the amount of chidori now."

Sakura parted her mouth in admiration, that was impressive. And she learnt three things from his words. One, Kakashi originally had a huge chakra reserve; two, the sharingan consumes much more chakra than she had thought; three, a transplanted sharingan consumes chakra even when it was inactive in non-Uchiha.

"But that jutsu is moot now. I'll have to synthesize a new one," Kakashi said with a sigh. He liked chidori. Really liked it. It was simple enough, and it gets the job done quickly.

"I'm not going to help you with this one," Sakura said with a shudder. She had seen Shino trying to create a new jutsu. And things did not end well for Kiba at all.

"I'm actually planning to make Sasuke my guinea pig for being the punk that he was."

"I really feel sorry for him now," Sakura said sincerely. Was it just her or did Kakashi's tone sounded very sinister?

"Maa.. Don't be. He's a big boy and he can handle it. It's just.. his hair is going to look much worse than it is now by the time I'm done," Kakashi said with an eye-crease.

Sakura guffawed, trying to picture Sasuke's hair sticking out in all directions from being electrocuted, with the sullen expression of a petulant kid on his face. And Naruto rolling around, laughing at him..

"Well, I supposed that there are worse things in life," Kakashi said grimly.

At that Sakura agreed, "There are."

After parting with Sakura at the training ground, Kakashi spotted Choza Akimichi, who was looking at the menu of a newly built restaurant.

"Choza-san," Kakashi greeted. "How are Shikamaru and Ino-chan coping?"

"Ah, Kakashi," Choza greeted back, as he gave him a tired smile. "Shika is more quiet than usual, but at least, it isn't as bad as Asuma's death.. Probably because he has had the experience of losing someone very precious to him, and this time around, he was fortunate enough to not witness Shikaku dying right in front of his eyes. And also, he knew that there was nothing he could do to save Shikaku, unlike that time with Asuma.." Choza said. "As for Ino-chan, she's not doing as well. Her mother said that she hasn't stopped crying."

Kakashi nodded solemnly. Losing your teammates were hard. But losing your family, it was way, way harder. "We'll have the wake for the fallen soon, won't we?"

"Yes," Choza replied. After a few moments of silence, Choza took a deep, shaky breath. "Kakashi," Choza began. "Do you ever feel guilty for being alive?"

"All the time," Kakashi replied as he too faced the menu. He wasn't looking at anything in particular, but he couldn't look at the man in front of him either. Losses were always very personal, and very painful.

"You're a strong boy, Kakashi," Choza said as he squeezed Kakashi's shoulders. "This is the first time I've ever experienced the death of comrades who meant everything to me. I can't even begin to imagine how you've coped all these time.."

"I don't," Kakashi replied honestly. Because you could never cope with the thought that your team was gone forever, especially if it was your fault that it had happened in the first place. "But I know that the world moves on even without them, and the only thing that I can do to honor their memory is to try to stop one less person from becoming like me."

"Thank you." Choza said as he patted Kakashi's back once more. Kakashi nodded at him, as they parted ways.

…

A/N

1\. For the S-ranked jutsu part, it would make more sense if I use the phrase 'It's not rocket science'. But this is Naruto, and they don't have rocket science.. Well, not in the current timeline at least, since 'technologies' don't come into play at least until Boruto's timeline.

2\. Genjutsu is so underplayed in Naruto! I mean you can use it for basically a lot of things other than mind-fucking people. Like camouflage, anaesthesia (cue story) and also maybe, hiding one's face when eating since you can't really eat through a mask. You see, Sasuke is the only person Kakashi have to watch out to when eating.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

As soon as Sasuke arrived at the Uchiha compound, he undid his henge and dismissed his clone. He took in his surroundings and sighed. One of the reasons he hated living inside Konoha was because of how eerily lonesome the compound was. The stillness of the place often felt like a warning from the ghosts of those slain in the massacre to not step a foot in there, lest another tragedy struck again.

The compound condition was such a contrast to the time before the massacre, where there were lives in every nook and cranny. People walking down the streets, kind obaa-sans and ojii-sans offering him sweets and asking about how his family was doing. In a moment when he closed his eyes, he could picture those happier days. But the next second, when he opened his eyes, all he could see was red - the blood spattered all over the compound walls and the rivers of blood pooling everywhere in the streets. And before horror could grip him, all the red morphed back into cold grey as he came back to reality. He hated, loathed the paint they used to recolour the whole compound. Why did they have to paint it so monochromatically in the same shade of grey rather than restoring it to its original livelier colours? The blood that the Uchiha had paid should have been enough to grant them at least that.

Sasuke ran his hand through his hair. He just wanted his house arrest to end quickly. All he wanted was to get out of there and maybe build a tree house so he could sleep in the forests just how he liked it. But for now, he would use whatever freedom that Kakashi had granted him. Sasuke opened the small missive and scanned it. The instruction was simple enough: _slip into the old headquarter at district 7, your code name is Karasu._ After he found no other hidden messages on the paper, Sasuke burnt it as he redid his henge and created another clone.

…

Finding the Root headquarter was child-play because of his rinnegan, and he was surprised to meet no ambushes thus far. He had expected some left-over militia to be lurking around and organise themselves into resistant groups against intruders sent by the Hokage. And he could feel multiple chakra signatures coming from the headquarter. Could they be non-hostile personnel?

As Sasuke looked at his surroundings, he understood why Root's existence was so unknown. No one would ever suspect an underground headquarters below a very old and ran down residential building, which seemed to have been abandoned. He also now understood why this part of the village was refurbished very slowly and that new high rise apartments were developed at the other ends of the village.

Before he could pull the well camouflaged latch to go underground, Sasuke reached for a kunai and whirled it to counteract the sword aimed as his head. Another blow was exchanged, and Sasuke winced at how inconvenient having just one arm was, especially because he was left with his non-dominant hand. Sure he had a henge on, but with his real left arm gone, his henge's left arm had very limited use. He could barely grip a kunai, and worst of all, he couldn't even mold chakra into it.

"Who are you?" the attacker in ANBU uniform called out.

"Code name is Karasu," Sasuke replied evenly as he sized up his opponent. He was clearly at a disadvantage since she was a two-handed sword user.

"Did Kakashi-senpai not tell you to wear the uniform?" the ANBU asked as she sheathed her swords.

"He just told me to come here."

"He only told you the address?"

"He only said district 7."

"Then how did you?" as soon as she asked the question, the ANBU groaned into her palms. District 7 was huge, and the only way anyone would find the Root headquarter location on a first glance was to look past the very strong genjutsu that had made the building looked like a bunch of rubbles. "The rest won't be happy if they know that senpai assign this mission to you, Uchiha."

"The rest?" Sasuke questioned.

"The rest of our original ANBU team. Your aniki was one of us."

Sasuke nodded as he drew in a shaky breath. Just how many people his brother cared about had been deceived during the massacre? Which he incited just so that he would survive? How could Itachi coped with all that, without anyone else supporting him?

"Anyway, let's get this mission over and done soon. And keep your henge on at all times for now. The rest may understand once senpai talk to them, but I would still expect animosity from them. After all, you went to Orochimaru of all people despite senpai mentoring you."

Sasuke cocked his head, the ANBU team sounded like..

"Yeah, all of them are a bunch of crazies with senpai complex," the ANBU sneered as she rolled her eyes, earning a snort from Sasuke.

As they descended to the basement, Sasuke inspected the narrow footpath with his rinnegan and said, "I'm surprised that there's no traps in here."

"We have disabled it all after Danzo's death. Any members who were not integrated to the normal ANBU and returned here had been apprehended."

"Hmm.." Sasuke nodded. So the people in the basement were not enemies. He counted six ANBUs present in the headquarters. Two guarding the entrance and four on standby at each corners of the room. There were also corridors extending from each sides of the room, and another level down, from what he could see with his rinnegan.

"Up ahead the corridor is Danzo's office. That will be my best bet if we're going to find anything," the guide told him as she stood in the middle of the room. Sasuke nodded at her as he used his camouflaged rinnegan to look at the corridor leading to the room, as well as its door. Nothing seemed unusual so far.

As Sasuke opened his door, he could see chakra disturbances almost everywhere. It seemed that Danzo had used a very high level genjutsu as well as barriers and seals all over the room.

"There's too many things in here. Where do you want me to start?" Sasuke asked.

"What things? We've turned the room upside down and found nothing," a bulky man in toucan mask snorted. "And just who are you? You came in with Ika* but you didn't bother even wearing your ANBU gear for such an operation."

"He's a sniffer," Ika replied.

"Inuzuka?" Toucan asked as he stared down at Sasuke from his post.

"No. I'm a sensory tracker," Sasuke told him. He could not lie about his ability. If they put him to a test he'd be screwed and lost the tiny amount of trust the ANBUs in the room had.

"And the gear? You know that it's mandatory, right kiddo?" another ANBU in a mandrill mask asked.

"I'm not in the ANBU."

"Then why the fuck are you even here? We have sent our best tracker and they found no shit, so who the fuck is stupid enough to send an outsider?" Toucan yelled as he pushed off his post to block Sasuke's exit from Danzo's office. He straightened himself to look taller to intimidate Sasuke.

"The fact that outsider's help is required is probably because there's no one in the organisation suited for the job," a voice rang from the entrance. Sasuke recognised the man, it was the man who acted as Kakashi's substitute.

"Neko, is this your beloved senpai's doing?" Toucan mocked.

"If he came with Ika, then it is."

"Your senpai's a bloody idiot."

"And you're the ancient guy who had been in the ANBU longer than all of us here combined and still yet to get a promotion, while senpai was promoted right off the bat," Neko, or Tenzo, Sasuke remembered he was called said with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Only because he was Yondaime's pet dog," Toucan retorted as he turned towards Tenzo and used his body size to intimidate him.

"Are you still pissed that all the Hokages you have served would rather use real birds to deliver missives than to trust you with such simple task?" Tenzo replied with a smirk as he glared defiantly at him.

"You bastard! You're not even a human, you freak!" Toucan hollered as he got ready to throw a punch.

"Silence! All of you!" a new voice came from the entrance. Sasuke recognised this man too. It was the terrifying guy from the Chuunin exam.

"Oki Tori*, out, now. And get your replacement. The rest of you, go back to your posts," Ibiki commanded. "Anything interesting?" Ibiki asked as he turned to Sasuke.

"The room is full of genjutsu, seals, and barriers," Sasuke replied. "Has Kakashi-san take a look at the room?"

"He was pulled out of this mission to prepare for the war just after he finished undoing all the traps. It was handed over to me, and I'm supposed to hand it back to him today," Ibiki said with a sigh. "Are you his pick to take over?"

"He only told me to come here and meet his contact," Sasuke replied as he gestured to Ika, who shook her head to indicate that she had heard nothing from Kakashi.

"Well, tell him to get his ass down here. Also, we've found nothing so far and the captured Roots were useless."

"Roger," Ika and Tenzo replied. Ibiki nodded in satisfaction as he left the headquarter.

"So, what do you want to do next?" Ika asked.

"I'll check the other rooms from the corridor as well as the level below. Then I think it would be good to check up the residential building too," Sasuke replied.

"Are you not going to uncover anything?" Tenzo asked curiously.

"I'll leave that decision to Kakashi-san. He's the mission leader after all," Sasuke answered, earning a satisfied nod from Tenzo. _And to think that he thought Sakura had it bad for him.. ANBUs are really on a whole other level._

The two rooms located at the ends of the other corridors had nothing interesting. One of them was the archives, which had been looked through and catalogued, while the other room was a weapon storage room. The level below was appalling to say the least. It looked like a dojo that could double as a meeting room. However, at the front of the room, there were torture contraptions and equipments worse than anything Sasuke had ever seen. Even Orochimaru's torture chamber pales in comparison to that.

"Senpai told me that the only torture chamber worse than this is in Kiri. But it was only slightly worse," Ika said as she watched Sasuke's revolted expression.

"Even for an undercover organisation that deals with the dirtiest job, I hardly think that those are necessary.." Sasuke spoke as his eyes hardened.

"Danzo's a messed-up guy." Tenzo told him. "His way of protecting Konoha is.."

"Is against the principles that Konoha was found under," Sasuke said. He was glad that among all the things he did wrong, the one thing he did not regret, killing Danzo, was the right call.

"I still shudder when I thought that Danzo could have been the Hokage after Tsunade-sama's coma," Tenzo quipped, earning nods from Sasuke and Ika.

Other than Danzo's office, they found nothing of note in the rest of the headquarters. The residential building looked normal too, other than a few rooms that seemed to have been cleared out.

"Were all the rooms occupied? Some were really empty," Sasuke noted.

"We're hoping to match the rooms with the notes in the archives. I've asked a former Root member, but he only knew the occupancy details of a few rooms. We're also still in the middle of matching data with the findings of the Yamanaka clan.. It's such a shame that most Root personnel fell during the war. It was like they were sacrificing themselves as a final act for Konoha." Ika said with a sigh.

"Most of them felt lost and left with no purpose after Danzo's death," Tenzo said.

"Did they do it because Danzo ordered them too? Was he afraid that they may leak his information once he no longer had control over them? Since I heard that the seal he placed to prevent them from talking disappeared once he was dead?" Sasuke asked.

"I believe that his final command was to protect Konoha. But most of them had been raised since birth to only follow his order and nothing else. It was all they knew," Tenzo replied.

"Ah.." Sasuke understood what he meant. It was the same with Orochimaru, some of his test subjects were the same.

"Well, it's getting a little late. I need to go, and don't forget to report all your findings to senpai," Tenzo said as he disappeared. Ika nodded the same to Sasuke as she left.

...

"Maa.. How long have you been waiting?" Kakashi asked as he stepped into his house.

"A little while," Sasuke replied, still leaning on Kakashi's kitchenette. "I found chakra disturbances all over Danzo's office. The rest are clear aside from a few rooms in the residential buildings that looked like it had been cleared out."

"I'll take my camera and we'll head there, if you're not too tired?" Kakashi asked, earning a deadpan look from Sasuke.

"I heard that nii-san was in your ANBU team."

"He was."

"Hn."

"He was the best comrade you can ever ask for. And he had a great sense of humor unlike you."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted with a sad smile on his face. "When he did it.. The massacre, what did you think?"

"Honestly, I was really puzzled," Kakashi replied. "He was accused of killing his best friend, and then massacred the whole clan just to test himself, which did not make sense. If that was all he was after, he could always just request a solo S-ranked mission to Kiri," Kakashi said. After a pause, Kakashi continued, "I did suspect that his action might have been an order, but dismissed it. Since Sandaime was the Hokage, I didn't think that he would ever order such a thing to be carried out. Plus, I was on the team that accompanied Sandaime to intercept Itachi that night."

"The push came from Danzo. And he too was responsible driving Shisui nii-san to his death."

"I figured as much as soon as you told us the truth about Itachi after killing Danzo."

"Is that why you asked to be assigned to investigate him? The job should be given to ANBU, and as far as I know you're no longer an active agent."

"Yeah. I've always knew that he was fishy, and I've had some brushes with him in the past. I just didn't think that his methods were that extreme.."

"You Konoha nins are always too trusting on one another," Sasuke snorted.

"That's because we are all comrades. And I would like to see this principle bring implemented and carried out on my reign. No one in Konoha should ever be marginalised, because all of us shares the same will of fire."

"Hn. I would hope so."

"I'm not letting what happened to your clan be repeated. I think that incident is the biggest mistake Konoha had ever made."

"If I go after the other two advisors, will you stop me?"

"I would kindly advise you that there are worse things than dying."

"Like what?" Sasuke asked with a quirked brow.

"We'll find out about their worst nightmares and make them re-live it everyday." Kakashi said with a grin.

"I thought you just said something about being comrades?"

"They're not my comrades," Kakashi answered with a shrug. At Sasuke's questioning look, Kakashi continued, "They're Konoha's ancient relics that should have been thrown out years ago. Plus, you can thank your aniki for the idea, I got it when he put me under tsukuyomi."

At Kakashi's words, Sasuke finally had his first good laugh in a really long time.

...

"Since I've checked the residential area, let's go to Danzo's office. It's the only place I haven't taken a look at yet," Kakashi said as he opened the latch leading towards the basement. Sasuke followed Kakashi's movement as he closed the latch behind him.

"Do you want me to gather some intel on the suspicious rooms?"

"I've sent my ninkens to figure it out." Kakashi replied.

"Hn."

"Hatake-taicho," Mandrill mask greeted.

"Yo! I assume Ibiki has settled the rotation roster?"

"Yes."

"Good," Kakashi said as his eyes creased and opened the door to Danzo's office. The first thing that came to his mind was _a man this cautious cannot be trusted._

"Karasu, I can't detect as well as you, but let's start undoing the genjutsu, and any fuiinjutsu and kekkai that are placed on the walls, roof or floor. I have a feeling that this office was not the only space he used."

...

As predicted, Danzo's office lead into a smaller storage room below and an expansive space hidden behind his book shelf. The room below held his personal weapons and some documents, while the other hidden room took a bit of work to get through. They had to first go through a labyrinth, filled with traps which Sasuke quickly disabled before getting into the main space. There, they found and abandoned research laboratory which was currently used to store shelves after shelves of books and scrolls.

"Do you think this was where Orochimaru did his experiments before he was chased out of the village?" Kakashi asked as he rubbed his temple. He had known that Danzo would have dirty secrets and uprooting his Root would be a tedious task. But he had not expected it to be this tedious, and this was only the Root headquarter. Danzo had his networks more extensive than Orochimaru, although less than Jiraiya; and some of Orochimaru's hideouts were Danzo's previously, so Kami knew how many other places they had to raid. Kakashi groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. The one year time frame that Tsunade gave him looked so much tighter now.

"Looks like it. One of the few inside Konoha I would say."

"You wouldn't happen to know the other locations, would you?"

"As far as I know there are three more. One of them, the main lab, was cleared years ago when Sandaime attempted to arrest him. The other two I have vague idea on the locations. And the next closest one is in Uzushiogakure."

"Good. I'll set you up with my ANBU team to check all those locations, in case Danzo had converted it into his base. Let's go back to his office for a final sweep before we call it a day."

...

"He has inscription all over this place," Sasuke said with distaste as he glanced through the cleared office through his disguised sharingan. The walls were full of details of every Root personnel, the date they joined, their death date, and causes - mission or terminated. The ceiling was full of code ciphers, some he had seen and used under Orochimaru's tutelage and some had characters which he had never even seen before. But the silver lining was the floor, which contained a map of Danzo's extensive network. Sasuke was glad that he had obtained the rinnegan, because the sharingan was not strong enough to detect the inscription. He would have gone ahead and erased it by accident because through the sharingan, the inscription was cleverly disguised like a genjutsu. It took him a few tries to work out the floor, but when he channeled the right chakra frequency, the inscriptions lit up and to show Danzo's outposts. If he tried other frequencies, maybe there would be more interesting findings..

"Hmm," Kakashi nodded as he leaned on the doorway watching Sasuke getting work done. He rubbed at his left eye, wishing that he still had the sharingan. He hated feeling helpless, something he had always associated with his father's passing.

"If you allow me, I'll write down all the inscriptions in this room and hand it over tomorrow."

"Sure. I'll stay here too. I need to go through all these documents."

"Hn."

As they got to work, Kakashi summoned five kage-bunshins. His chakra limit had clearly improved after his sharingan was plucked off his eye socket by Madara. _Trade-offs_. It was annoying that he could no longer instantly copy jutsu and movements to freak out his opponents; or use a genjutsu without handsigns, making enemies drop like flies; or teleporting stuffs instantly, especially body parts with Kamui. But the plus side was, his chakra level rose exponentially. Having four to five fold his previous reserve was certainly really handy, but he really envied Naruto and Sasuke. Why couldn't he get free power ups like them?

…

A/N

1\. Ika means squid. Because Yugao has purple hair and the only animals I could think of that are somewhat purplish are squid and octopus. Since squid has longer tentacles and Yugao has long hair, I go with Ika instead of Tako.

2\. Oki Tori literally translated to big bird, which is the Japanese for toucan. I just want a variety of animals rather than the usual Cat, Dog, Tiger..

3\. Mandrill in Japanese in Mantoriru (according to Google translate). I don't think it means anything, just the phonetic of how Mandrill would be said in Japanse.

4\. I hope you enjoy some ANBU's senpai complexes (especially Tenzo. lol). Notice me, Senpai!

5\. Apologies for the long wait. My schedule revolves around school. And if you're reading this because of chapter update notification in April 2019 that says that 2 new chapters are added, chapter two of the fic is the other new chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Sakura ran through the rooftops. It felt good to be able to soar high in the sky. It made it seem like she could fly, could do anything even. As she looked around, she noted that Konoha's rebuilding seemed to be progressing very well, with most of the skeletons of structures destroyed from Pein's attack re-erected. Only some finishing touches were needed, and Konoha would look as if it had never been attacked.

"Yamato-taicho!" Sakura greeted the man sitting on the rooftop.

"Ah, Sakura-chan," Tenzo turned around to wave at her. Sakura's smile dropped immediately as her heart leapt to get throat.

"Taicho! You shouldn't work yourself to death like this. It was bad enough that Kakashi-sensei scares me half to death on a regular basis, I don't need you to do the same," she admonished as she immediately went to replenish his chakra supply.

"Well, it's an honour to be compared to senpai.." Tenzo began, but quickly shut his mouth at the deathly glare Sakura was giving. Tenzo was a smart man. So he knew that keeping quiet and nodding appropriately was the best option he had.

"Well, you're all done now, Taicho. Please refrain from overusing your chakra in the future. I know Naruto's running around, please just grab him and get him to transfer you some chakra."

"Noted, thank you, Sakura-chan," Tenzo said with a smile. "Are you going to a party? That's a lot of ice cream and goodies right there."

"Ah.. I'm just going to Ino's to keep her company. Her father's death still affected her really badly."

"Please send my condolences for her too. Inoichi-san was a great man."

"I will," Sakura replied. "By the way, I'm planning to have a gathering soon with team 7 members. You have to come along."

"But I'm not a part of team 7."

"You are. You and Sai both are," Sakura said firmly. "I haven't managed to track down Sai since I'm still busy at the hospital. But if you see him, would you please let him know too, Taicho?"

"Will do, Sakura-chan."

Sakura gave Tenzo one last smile as she leapt through another building. Ino first, and then she'll worry about dragging her teammates to sit down together through a meal.

...

"Ah, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother greeted as Sakura landed in front of Ino's house.

"Oba-san," Sakura replied as she gave the older woman a hug. "How's Ino?"

"She hasn't came out of her room. And she barely eats," Ino's mother said as she shook her head sadly.

"I'll do my best to drag her out of bed," Sakura joked weakly. "How are you holding up?"

"It's hard, but I'm a kunoichi of Konohagakure. I have been prepared for this to happen the day I married Inoichi. I understood my duty to my family and the village."

"Yes, of course," Sakura replied. Although Ino's mom spoke with such poise, Sakura could see the sorrow in her eyes. She just lost her husband after all. "Well, my mom is in town for a while. I think she would be happy to have company over tea."

"Thank you, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother replied kindly as she drew Sakura into another hug. "I'll be on my way to the flower shop first. It's going to be a busy day as we are having the funeral procession tomorrow."

"I'll do my best to drag Ino to help you," Sakura promised. "But if she's still not up to it, I'll come along to help. I'll bring some friends over too."

"That would be lovely. Thank you, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother said as she released Sakura from the hug.

Sakura watched as Ino's mother disappeared from her line of sight as she quietly made her way into Ino's house. She set down grocery bag she brought on the coffee table before making her way up to Ino's room.

"Ino," Sakura called out softly as she stood in front of her door. There was no answer, but Sakura could hear the rustling of sheets. "I'm coming in, Ino," she tried once more. When there wasn't any answer, Sakura gently opened the door.

Ino was lying in bed, cocooned inside her blanket. Sakura made her way towards Ino's bed and sat on its edge as she gently ran her hand through her hair.

"It still hurts, Sakura," Ino rasped as tear began to trickle out of the corner of her eyes. Sakura's heart broke for her best friend. Sure, she did not know how it felt losing a parent, but when Sasuke left it had hurt her and left her numb for weeks. And at the time, she knew that he was still alive and that there was hope of him coming back. She couldn't even begin to imagine how Ino was feeling.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I really am, and I don't know what to say or do to make it better," Sakura admitted quietly as she knelt down beside Ino's bed to be at eye level with her.

"At least you're not telling me that it will get better with time," Ino said bitterly as she sat up. "I know it's true, Kami, I hope it's true. But it still hurt so fucking bad right now. I don't need to hear it!"

Sakura nodded her head, just listening to what the blonde had to say. Ino then drew her beloved bunny stuffed toy and hugged it close. It was the first stuffed toy Inoichi had gotten her, and Ino said that she had the bunny since before she could remember anything. As the silence stretched, Ino huffed and patted the space beside her. Sakura complied and sat beside her best friend as Ino laid her head on Sakura's shoulder.

"Can you believe that the elders came right after I got home, before I could cry in my mom's arms and demanded that I started the training to take over as the clan's head?" Ino said seethingly as she chewed on the ear of her bunny.

"Hmm. You can always give me their names and I'll work something out with Naruto, Sasuke and Sai," Sakura replied as she gently removed the poor bunny from the abuse of Ino's teeth.

"I'll give you the list. And I want to watch their faces when they suffer."

"That settled it then," Sakura said. "Your kaa-san is really worried about you, and I've brought lots of ice cream, chocolates and cookies. All your favorites. Could you try to eat something for us?" Sakura added quietly.

"Yeah. I'll eat. I haven't had anything for a while so all those calories shouldn't ruin my figure," Ino joked weakly.

"Good. Because we're stuffing ourselves with all of it and we're going to help your mom run the store," Sakura said as she got up from the bed. "I'll grab the food and you'll choose the movie?"

"Hmm." Ino nodded as she slowly crawled out of her cocoon. Before Sakura could exit the room, Ino called out to her. "Thank you, Sakura."

"This is what friends are for, pig."

"Forehead," Ino retorted back fondly.

...

5 pints of ice cream, 2 boxes of cookies and nth pieces of chocolates later, both Sakura and Ino were in sugar induced commas. With the latter swimming in so much more endorphins than she had been for the past week.

"This is a bad idea," Ino moaned as she stuffed yet another cookie into her mouth.

"I feel like I've gained 10kg," Sakura groaned as she lied down flat on the bed.

"Uh, I feel like I should join Team Gai's training session for a whole month just to lose everything I've gained today."

"Ah, you probably haven't heard, but Gai-sensei may never walk again," Sakura said soberly, as she sat back up in the bed.

"What, no way! What happened?" Ino asked, flabbergasted. Gai-sensei was one of the strongest jonin in the village. And he was posted in Kakashi-sensei's batallion. And if Gai-sensei was strong, Kakashi-sensei was straight up a monster. He was able to fight against two Akatsuki members, one an undead zombie and another, a creepy ragdoll who can split himself into what, 4 or 5 pieces of himself? While protecting both her and Chouji. And although Ino was not on Kakashi's battalion during the war, she was linked to another Yamanaka who was the sensor in his battalion. Her cousin had told her that he was glad that Kakashi was on their team because a rampaging copy-ninja carrying a massive cleaver was the most terrifying thing he had seen since the Yondaime Hokage's rampage on Kumo during the third war. So how could he let his best friend got hurt to that extent?

"Gai-sensei fought Madara and activated his eight's gate. He broke his leg kicking Madara."

"Now, that's a cool story on how you broke your leg."

"I know right?" Sakura laughed. "But I really wish that there is something we can do, to at last allow him to walk again."

"Me too. How's the team though?"

"Neji woke up for five minutes yesterday before going back to sleep. But otherwise he seemed fine. Tenten had been busy being the convoy guard for our rebuilding materials and I think Kakashi-sensei had been training with Lee."

"Hmm.. Chouji and Shika had been dropping by every day to check on me and shooing the elders." Ino mused. She would treat them to BBQ after the funeral, but she's only paying for 5 servings for Chouji. "How's your team? Any luck with _Sa-su-ke_ -kun?" Ino asked as she wagged her eyebrow suggestively.

"I just saw Yamato-taicho this morning, and he asked me to pass you his condolences," Sakura said. "Taicho said that your dad was a good man."

"He was," Ino said as she took a deep breath. "I'll thank him tomorrow in the funeral procession if I see him." Ino said. "Well, enough of that. I want some tea on how your team is doing, especially with you and Sasuke-kun."

"Well, Taicho looked exhausted when I saw him. I think they worked him to the bone for the rebuilding effort."

"Hmm. I bet Naruto's roped in too?"

"Yep. He's surprisingly been more help than hindrance so far," Sakura commented fondly. "Oh, and before you asked about Sai," Sakura added conspiratorially. "I haven't seen a head nor tail about him. But I'll probably try to find him after the funeral. You're very welcomed to come along," Sakura said as it was her turn wagging her eyebrow at Ino.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer," Ino said with a giggle. "But how about Sasuke-kun?"

"I think Kakashi-sensei's roping him into something," Sakura said with a shudder, remembering the sadistic smile on Kakashi's face.

"It can't be that bad."

"Oh but Sensei caught him sneaking out of the compound."

"Do you think he'll be at the funeral tomorrow, as the fallen?"

"From the look on Kakashi-sensei's face I say that it's a pretty high probability," Sakura said with a cringe.

"You should help him then."

"Nah, whatever Sensei is doing to him, I figured it will not even be sufficient punishment for him leaving us years ago."

"Forehead?" Ino called with a surprising quietness in her voice. At Sakura's head tilt, Ino drew a deep breath. "You don't sound so.. enamoured with him any more."

Sakura sighed as she sagged back into Ino's bed. "I've started having this confusion about my feelings for him since the war ended."

"Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't there to listen to your love adventures," Ino commented idly, her exact words prompted Sakura to turn her head and groan into Ino's pillow.

"You know who I talked to about this instead?"

"Tsunade-sama? Shizune-san? Your mom? Tenten? Hinata?" Ino grew more and more puzzled as Sakura shook her head to every names Ino suggested. "Naruto?" Ino asked incredulously. While Naruto was a great friend, he was just too dense.

"It's worse than Naruto."

At Sakura's words, Ino's eyebrow furrowed. "You talked to Gai-sensei?"

"I think it's even worse than Gai-sensei," Sakura said grimly.

"Well, I'm running out of options here. I would start throwing in Ibiki-san and Anko-san just for the sake of it."

"Well, it's not that bad. It's not that he's a bad person to talk to, but it just felt so mortifying."

"Were you drunk?"

"I was completely sober," Sakura said dryly. At Ino's eyebrow cock, Sakura caved. "I somehow talked to Kakashi-sensei about my feelings for Sasuke."

Sakura shot Ino a scowl as the blonde howled in laughter. "You asked Konoha's number one most aloof bachelor for love advice?"

"We talked, and it just came up."

"So what did he say?"

"I have time to figure all this out, since Sasuke-kun's not going anywhere for a while."

"That is a surprisingly good answer."

"He's aloof and reclusive. He's not socially inept, Ino. Thats's Sai."

"I suppose he always have a knack to assure everyone that things are going to be okay," Ino replied nonchalantly to not bite into Sakura's bait.

"He does. And it's reassuring because we know that he will try his hardest to keep his promises."

"How is he though? I heard he lost his sharingan?"

"He managed to make me feel like a genin again from a taijutsu spar," Sakura replied with a pout.

"Well, it's Kakashi-sensei. The fact that he even spars with you means that he recognises your skills."

"I supposed so," Sakura said as a smile tugged on the corner of her lips. She may not be good enough now, but she could always train harder. After all, the thing she did best was playing catch-up, right? "By the way, I told your kaa-san that I would help her drag you out of bed to help in the shop. But if you're not feeling up to it, I'll grab Naruto in your stead to help?"

"I'll come. I know she's been suffering too," Ino said with a sad smile. "Besides, can't have my family business be ruined now, can we?"

At that, Sakura laughed as she exited Ino's room to give her some privacy to get ready.

...

A/N

1\. Ino's mom's name has never been revealed, and I don't think she would come up again in my fic, so I don't think I need to create a name for her

2\. She might sound a little cold from her interaction with Sakura, but I imagined Ino's mom as a sort of noble lady. The Yamanaka clan, although not as prominent as even the Akimichi (because there are 4 noble clans in Konoha: Uchiha, Hyuuga, Aburame and Akimichi) would still be an old clan along with Nara clan. So I expect the patriarch and matriarch to have a sort of noble air around them. Sooo for Ino's mom, since the Yamanaka are also florist, I imagine her to be someone gentle, but with a lot of inner strength. So she would not usually sound cold and detached, but in this circumstance, since her husband had just died and her daughter is still in a state of emotional turmoil, she have to be the strong one (cos that's also what moms do). So the 'detachment' is probably her way of coping.

3\. Endorphin is a 'happy' hormone (basically an endogenous opioid/ opioid produced naturally by the body). There's some research that suggests that eating chocolates causes endorphin release because of the chemical compound found in chocolates. So, eat chocolates and stay happy! :)

4\. In a lot of fics, Kakashi is often depicted as someone who's not very good with social interaction. But I think Kakashi, being a ninja, would know how to act and what to say, since acting the right way and saying the right stuff goes a long way in the shinobi world, especially when it helps you to not get killed in the job. I think he would no doubt be awkward in a setting where he is in a big crowd and is the centre of attention of said crowd. But if it's a smaller group of people, I think he would know how to position himself (especially literally positioning himself in a way where extricating himself from said situation would be easiest).


End file.
